Hidden
by DDVZ
Summary: Everyone has their problems. It's just that mine are bigger than yours! said the struggling friend to their struggling friend. Extreme violence, gore, angst, sex, and language. Comments are always welcome NOTE: sex not important to plotsectioned out
1. Show Overview

_**Code Lyoko: Overview**_

**Show information**:

Code Lyoko is a somewhat popular anime about an adolescent boy, who's just entering his teen years, Ulrich Stern. He has attended Kadic Academy, a boarding school in France, his whole educational career. Kadic Academy covers 5th - 12th grades, so its students share a lot of time together. They have strict teachers and sharp curfews, but the academy is run like a college, with classes at different times throughout the day and breaks between them. Its principal, Dr. Delmas--for doctorate, not medically-- runs his school flexibly, allowing its students to enjoy themselves while retaining a sense of authority.

His daughter, Katherine "Sissi" Delmas, has had a crush on Ulrich for a long time. She is a very snobbish person to the Lyoko Guardians. Sissi is nominated prettiest girl in the school many times, and is eyed by many guys; however, her lack of brains usually deters them from pursuing her. The Sissi Fan Club, comprised of only Nikolas and Herve, constantly follows Sissi around. They both have crushes on Sissi, and are Sissi's only true friends, although she treats them like dirt.

Kadic's Physical Education officer, Jim, is also its school monitor and substitute jack-of-trades. Jim--Jimbo to his friends--is a constant deterrent to the Lyoko Guardians, despite having helped them many times. He's done just about everything once, but because his stories often make him appear to be a joke, he doesn't like to talk about them--hence his motto, "I don't wanna talk about it."

Its school nurse, Dorothy, begins to play a big part in the latter part of the anime. She is head of the infirmary staff (a medical building with similar rules and treatment to a walk-in clinic). However, it is inconveniently located far from the school's main campus. Speaking of its campus, Kadic academy is comprised of: a main campus, a sports arena, an infirmary, a cafeteria, a dorm with upper and lower levels to separate genders, an auditorium, and a grounds surrounded by forest.

Ulrich Stern meets a new student one day at Kadic, named Odd Della Robbia. Odd is very boisterous and energetic, but friendly. At first Ulrich sees Odd as a nuisance, but after a few days of constant companionship, the boys grow a close bond of friendship. Soon afterwards they become curious as to Jeremy Bellpois disappearances. Jeremy is a literal genius, excelled well above any of the students in the academy, even the seniors. He excels in programming languages and discovered something a little ways off the school grounds at the beginning of the school year. What Jeremy found was a factory, which can be accessed through the sewers--the manholes being in the grounds and in the auditorium.

This factory used to be a car assembly line, but had been abandoned for years. It is currently the keeper of an advanced super computer, which houses Lyoko. Lyoko is a virtual world programmed by genius Franz Hopper. It has five sectors: the Mountain Sector, the Forest Sector, the Desert Sector, the Polar Sector, and the Core or Carthage. Each sector is connected by waypoints called towers. From within these towers, only those with a great enough level of programming skill can access Lyoko's code. The core of Lyoko is separate from the other four sectors and must be accessed using a special transport.

After following Jeremy through the sewers, Odd and Ulrich found him in the super computer room. It was there that they learned of Lyoko and the reason why Jeremy had been going there so often, an artificial intelligence program named Aelita. Aelita had a female form and lived in the virtual world. She had lost all of her memories and was being attacked by monsters whenever she left the tower. Odd and Ulrich decided to try and help Aelita by going into the virtual world themselves. To do this they used scanners.

These scanners copy and transfer material from the real world and then string its genetic code and brainwaves out into one being, producing that person's ideal image of themselves. However, it temporarily deletes the information it copies, so the inhabitants' physical bodies are destroyed during their trip through the scanners. When someone sustains too much damage or is materialized, the process is reversed. The code for that person's image, however, is kept on the server for quicker file access. The whole thing really is just cut-and-paste if you think about it.

Jeremy was in love with Aelita and wanted to materialize her. But she needed a specific program to break the bond she had with Lyoko itself. Jeremy worked on such a program for a long amount of time, about one full year. During this year, the team uses many "Returns to the Past." A Return to the Past does just what it says. Only people who have their data scanned into Lyoko remember what happened before the return was signaled, letting them shroud Lyoko and Xana in secrecy.

Odd and Ulrich were killed almost instantly and returned. Later on Ulrich met Yumi Ishiyama, a Japanese girl who was one year older than himself and his new friends, in martial arts class. He immediately liked her, causing a deep confusion within Ulrich. Later Yumi too was virtualized and they defeated Xana, Lyoko's adaptable defense program and the source of all the monsters, for the first time. When Jeremy turned on Lyoko, he also rebooted Xana. Because of Lyoko's link to the real world, Xana can possess an object, person, or animal and wreak havoc on Earth as it tries to get rid of the Lyoko Guardians.

Jeremy succeeds in the materialization program, but his first semi-successful attempt only works for about a day. His second allows Aelita to stay for about a week, but she had to return to Lyoko and be re-materialized after the week was up. The third was permanent. However, a virus from Xana plagues Aelita. This virus ultimately links Aelita back to Lyoko, causing her to die if the super computer is shut down.

In their second year, they learn of Lyoko's past. Franz Hopper had been a scientist supported by the military. His game program that he worked on to abstain from thinking about his deceased wife blew into a military project. He developed Xana after using many returns. When he was discovered to be coding the materialization process, he ran and used this process on himself and his daughter, in order to keep them safe. His daughter was named Aelita Hopper.

Prolonged exposure in Lyoko had slowly drained her memories away, so during their search for an anti-virus, they also fought for Aelita's memories. Aelita gains these memories back and Xana is freed from Lyoko and goes into the Internet. However, he can still only attack through Lyoko, so his attacks on Earth can still be deferred by deactivating the tower he hacked into. Jeremy soon solves the viral problem and begins his search for Franz Hopper's data, as he could not be materialized with a body

This marks the start of their second term of that school year.

Xana soon succeeds in destroying all of Lyoko, and the group now is at a loss. They have no way of stopping Xana's next attack, as he can still get to the scanners indirectly.

**Other Important information**:

-Near the end of year two, term one, a boy named William comes to Kadic. He also has a crush on Yumi, but takes more charge than Ulrich, who is too insecure to do anything about his own relationship with Yumi. Ironically, Yumi still wishes to be with Ulrich. However, Yumi and Ulrich's relationship falls through anyway.

-Aelita holds the Keys to Lyoko inside of her memories, which is why he needed access to her memories. Once these keys are obtained, the bearer can then materialize themselves out of Lyoko.

-William, the group's latest addition, ends up causing the destruction of Lyoko after Xana possesses him on his first mission.

-Jeremy takes three trips into Lyoko

-In the end the group's grades are slipping--except for Aelita's and Jeremy's--and they are getting into conflicts with their parents.

**_Character Bios_:**

**Lyoko Guardians:**

Key:

character name-

age at beginning

description

Lyoko form

weapon, power

special attacks

vehicle

Other info

**Odd Della Robbia**-

11

blond hair, matted down, although after his Lyoko experience he draws it up into a single Vegeta-style spike with a purple stripe down the middle. pink undershirt. purple long sleeved shirt. purple pants, with each leg being a different shade of purple. Yellow sneakers.

blond hair, hair in single Vegeta-style spike with a purple stripe down the middle. pink and yellow striped undershirt. purple long sleeved shirt with a dog logo on it and white daimonds going down the sleeves. purple pants. Purple gloves with white daimonds over palms. yellow sneakers. yellow kneeguards with pink straps. Has a tail, covered by his pants (sticks straight out, there's a tail hole) with lighter purple tiger stripes along it. Has claws and two vertical, purple tiger stripes on his face on his cheeks and two purple daimonds above his eyebrows.

laser arrows, energy palm shield. future sight (loses future sight during their second adventure)

impact

overboard

Owns a dog named Kiwi. his parents are not mentioned in the show.

**Yumi Ishiyama**-

12

black hair, straight down to her shoulders. Black long-sleeved shirt, pants, and sneakers. Belly exposed.

black hair, done up in a bun. vertically split red and black floral kimono lined with yellow. white sleeves added to kimono. Japanese face paint and make-up on. Yellow kimono tie encasing a fan holster held up by red rope. red pants. black cloth from shin up. white shin guards. black heeled shoes.

fan blades, levitation

none

overwing

lives off-campus with her brother and her parents.

**Jeremy Bellpois**-

11

blond hair, boy cut, with a single bang hanging down. blue turtle-neck shirt. brown pants. gray sneakers. black-rimmed glasses.

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

none

parents are in London, England. isolated.

**Ulrich Stern**-

11

brown hair, spiked, with part of his bangs spiked down over the right side of his forehead. light green windbreaker. olive green T-shirt. green pants. white shoes.

brown hair, spiked, with part of his bangs spiked down over the right side of his forehead. yellow-orange bandana with a white II logo. yellow-orange samurai robe with purple stemming from the belt down into two arcs of yellow-orange each with a lotus symbol. tan undershirt. black shirt starting at chest with tiger stripes in a yellow circle logo. black cloth from elbows to wrists. brown biker style fabric gloves. green "belt" with white rope holding it up. black pants. white shin guards lined on the top with red twine. sandals. black scabbard. samurai killing sword with blue hilt studded with white daimonds.

katana, super sprint

triplicate, impact

overbike

is in soccer. parents own company. insecure.

**Aelita Hopper "Stone"**-

11 (21)

pink hair, short. necklace given to her by Jeremy. long pink jacket. red overalls (but shorts not pants). red boots with white lining.

pink hair, short. red shirt lined with pink. green undershirt. red skirt lined with pink. green armbands lined with red. green pants. red leg bandages over pants. pink "clogs" (fabric). vertical pink lines coming down from the eyes. elf ears. white earrings.

red blast spheres in their third adventure, hacking

materialize objects by singing

none

Franz Hopper's only living relative.

**William Dunbar**-

12

blue hair, spiked down. red undershirt. blue T-shirt. blue jeans. black boots with white lining.

blue hair, spiked down. blue shirt with black weak point indicators as well as a black stripe going from the neck diagonally down to the chest and then straight down to the waist line. blue pants with black weak point indicators. black shoes. red rims on body suit-like clothing. heavy blade.

broad sword, energy slash, damage bonus

none

overcycle

competes with Ulrich. Says he's not a showoff, but in Lyoko the truth comes out.

**Elizabeth "Sissi" Delmas**-

11

black hair, straight down to her shoulders. yellow headband. gold earrings. pink short-sleeved shirt with yellow heart on it. belly exposed. red skirt. red-violet pants. red sneakers.

Failed to enter Lyoko

competes with Yumi. Lonely.

**Jim "Jimbo"** (?)-

brown hair, spiked. white T-shirt. red windbreaker with blue lining. blue sweatpants. white socks. brown shoes.

Failed to enter Lyoko

has helped the team 3 times.

**Kiwi**-

tan fur. sharp red nose. squarish face. stubby tail. small.

Failed to enter Lyoko

Odd's dog. a source of trouble for the team.

**Franz Hopper**-

gray hair, boy cut. white lab coat. brown suit. brown shoes. black-rimmed glasses.

white orbs.

father of Aelita. creator of Lyoko. Wife deceased.

**Lyoko Enforcers:**

Key:

name-

description and powers

season appeared in

dominant sector

**Mega Tank-**

A giant pinball, that opens up to reveal red veins connecting to a central eye. It uses its bulk to chase and crush its enemies, and then clears out the dregs with its vertical sweeping lasers.

1

none

**Spider**-

4 grey robotic legs. yellow dome for head. shoot lasers from mouth-like hole. black on head Xana symbol.

1

Forest

**Hornet**-

Two pairs of white wings. green bee shape. black Xana symbol on "head". shoots lasers from stinger.

1

Mountain

**Krab**-

four long red crab-like legs. red, flattened, dome-shaped head. pink Xana symbol on head. three white circles on black strip in the middle of head serve as its eyes. Fires one laser from its eyes.

1

Desert

**Block**-

four grey robotic legs. rotating yellow block for head. Each side, except for the one with its legs, has a face. Each face has a small black Xana symbol on it and functions differently. The top one has no function. One of its faces shoots lasers. Another shoots ice to freeze its opponent. Another shoots dirt to trap its opponent in stone.

1

none

**Tarantula**-

brown body. green belly. white armor on its four legs and head. black Xana symbol on head. Shoots lasers from its front legs while standing on the others.

2

Carthage, polar

**Creeper**-

brown tail with green underbelly. tan torso. brown skinny arms it walks with. small tan head with a very short neck. lighter yellow Xana symbol on its head. Shoots lasers from a cannon in its mouth.

2

Carthage, forest

**Mantis**-

black underbelly. white fur. stingray-shaped body. long, skinny black tail. black Xana symbol on its head. Flies by flapping its fins. shoots lasers from its "mouth". can lay bombs.

2

Carthage

**Skipazoa**-

jellyfish-shaped. pink stinger. green border around clear spherical head. black Xana symbol on head. ten grey tentacles. drains data or loads viruses through its tentacles.

2

none, seemingly infinite life, only one of its kind

**X.A.N.A.**-

no definite form. creates monsters on Lyoko. portrayed as a black ghostly figure. infects real-world animals, people, or objects with its virus, allowing it to control things. Any living object it controls gives the subject the Xana symbol in place of their pupils. controls electricity.

1

none (program located in Carthage)

**Other:**

Key:

name-

starting age

description

other info

**Herb** (?)-

11

black hair, slicked down. gray outcrop. green sweater. white collar. tan pants. white socks. brown loafers.

Sissi Fan Club member.

**Nikolas** (?)-

11

blond hair, mullet. blue T-shirt. red shorts. yellow shoes.

Sissi Fan Club member.

**Mr. Delmas**-

gray hair, boy cut. brown suit. green tie. tan undershirt. gray beard. black-rimmed glasses.

Kadic's principal.

_**In Depth Study:**_

**Lyoko**:

**Tower Information**:

Towers are connected by veins, or wires that run throughout the landmasses of each sector. Each tower has a parallel in another sector, linking the sectors together and providing a passageway between them. Carthage itself is the equivalent of one gigantic tower, but must be accessed using a transport, in the form of an orb with a blue Xana symbol on it.

Towers have two levels, one a base lets the user go up to the second level or descend into a parallel tower. When in the upper level, the user can access Lyoko's framework coding, with the actual code being stored in Carthage. When a tower is infected, it can be swiped clean of the virus by entering in "Lyoko." However, if "Xana" is entered into the tower, the virus spreads, consumes, and deletes the entire sector.

Towers are waypoints and safe havens, as monsters cannot go into them.

**Sector Information**

**-Forest Sector**:

Millions of floating trees that literally extend down into the digital sea. The land here is forest undergrowth.

**-Polar Sector**:

A giant archipelago of glaciers surrounded by a sea of water. Under this sea is the digital sea. The user can swim in pools within Lyoko, but they fall through the polar sea. There are many tunnels here that act as shortcuts between glaciers.

**-Mountain Sector**:

One massive mountain range. There are occasional trees here and there as well as dirt roads. The ground here is the least stable.

**-Desert Sector**:

Equivalent to the Sahara in vastness, this desert is completely devoid of all life. It is almost completely flat, quite unlike the Gobi Desert, and goes through night and day. This sector has a few rocky outcroppings, and gives users actual mirages, making them see oases.

**-Carthage**:

Lyoko's core, the site where Xana creates his minions. It appears as the sun to Lyoko and is out miles over the digital sea. A transport leads the user into the Central Corridor, where a random path is selected. This path leads into a Danger Room with a timed trap to prevent intruders from accessing Lyoko. If the timer button is not pressed before its alarm goes off, the floor deletes itself.

From there they come to the Transport Room, where swiftly moving docks constantly encircle the rim of the inner core. These docks take you to the Outer Dome, where the main code can be accessed. This area is guarded by Mantises that spring from the core's walls. From here the user can access either the core chamber of Lyoko or Lyoko's Memory Banks. The user could also follow a user-created tube into a different sector to allow themselves to be de-virtualized. These are usually created by Jeremy.

The Memory Banks are one long corridor filled with many trap-floors. If you transcend all the steps you will find Aelita's memory, and a data log by Franz Hopper. There is no floor here either, so one must adhere to the multitude of steps and bridges. Since the actual output of Lyoko is not recorded here, Xana deleted it permanently from Lyoko without suffering drawbacks. The team was able to successfully procure the truth after numerous tries, barely finishing in time.

The Core Chamber's entrance is located at the bottom of the inner core and is guarded by three continuously closing and opening doors. The Core Chamber is one long stairway up to a floating orb surrounded by a clear cube. This cube is the core's first defense against attackers; this is supposed to give Xana time to eliminate the intruders. The orb is the second layer of defense, once this is shattered, a system error occurs and Lyoko is deleted as a final defense mechanism.

Returning to the past restores the core's defense gauge.

**Earth**:

**Computer Room**:

Jeremy's base of operations. Here Jeremy has access to all the code of Lyoko, except that it is highly encrypted. This means that Jeremy must have Aelita retrieve code for him while inside Carthage, as it is not as heavily encrypted from inside. Jeremy's computer has three monitors. One displays the desktop, programs, and visual screens of the action. The second monitor is usually blank. The third shows all player information and tower and core status. He can bring different information onto any of the three monitors.

The computer is connected to a chair off the ground. This whole contraption is connected to a device that produces an electronic map of the currently accessed sector. A smaller version of this map can be put onto the main console itself.

**Scanner Room**:

Originally only containing one scanner, when Franz Hopper learned of the government's intentions to use Lyoko as a weapon, he created two more. These scanners copy and transfer material from the real world and then string its genetic code and brainwaves out into one being, producing that person's ideal image of themselves. However, it temporarily deletes the information it copies, so the inhabitants' physical bodies are destroyed during their trip through the scanners. When someone sustains too much damage or is materialized, the process is reversed. The code for that person's image, however, is kept on the server for quicker file access. It is connected to the supercomputer room by a small manhole-like passageway.

**Supercomputer Room**:

A giant mass of computing data, the source of Lyoko in all its glory. It is black and yellow and about the size of three automobiles stacked one on top of another. Its input data is inconveniently stored on hundreds of floppy discs. It has an off/on lever attached to it. All data still attached to Lyoko is deleted as a consequence of turning the computer off.

This contraption is the source of the return to the pasts. It reverts the status of everything, except what has been deleted on Lyoko and its own damage. Turning on Lyoko brings back all data that was previously stored on Lyoko, as long as the floppy discs remain undamaged.

**Factory**:

The "Factory" is an old car assembly factory. It is used as the hidden base of Lyoko's supercomputer, connecting the three main rooms by an elevator. The entrance's stairs have broken, so the group is required to swing down on wires hanging from the ceiling.

The entrance room itself is very vacant, iron beams being the only scenery. Deeper within the factory there is a boiler room, an assembly room complete with an automated assembly line, an upper corridor along the building's right side, and a drawing room where they would come up with ideas for car models.

This abandoned establishment is about the size of Kadic, and is connected to the mainland by a bridge. The factory is on an island surrounded by water. The bridge stems off from an abandoned and run-down road from the city.


	2. Prologue

**Prolouge-**

"What are they? They are instances when our environment or ourselves do things other than the way we wish them to. We experience pain, sadness, sorrow, anger, frustration, loneliness, and all other negative feelings because of these certainties.

A world without problems? Now that, my friend is impossible. Problems occur when we want something to be more or less than what we think it should be. Therefore, if we didn't have problems, we wouldn't have free thought. We would all think the same thing, and accept it. But even then, someone somewhere would find a flaw in the system. They would analyze it and criticize it, making people skeptical and restarting the old process. In order to permanently eliminate the world's problems we would have to eliminate thought itself.

Would that be so terrible? What a stupid question! A world without thought would be a terrible and boring place to be! I thought this had been established when you were conceived!

Just because it's boring does not mean it's terrible, you say! Hogwash! Of course it would be terrible. It would be extremely horrible. With boredom comes sadness and we would be eternally sad!

If we had no thought, then we wouldn't know what sadness was, or even feel its mental effects at all, you say. I guess... You know what! We're getting off track. Why don't we get back to today's lesson plan?

Class, how does a nerve send a message to the brain?"

"You claim that not being able to think is like the apocalypse itself. Well sometimes not thinking is the only way out..."

The boy then left the room, leaving the classroom bewildered and unable to fathom even the slightest bit of what he was driving at. The young teen had left his Science class early only to retire to his dorm. The blond genius was too emotionally drained over all of the events, and could do naught but lie upon his bed as he remembered what once was.

It had been his life, his everyday, boring, monotonous existence. Yet now it was more than that. Now it looked like paradise to him, and he dearly wanted that paradise back, no matter what the cost.

With this in mind he got up and walked the long way to the place where he had spent so much of his childhood, now nothing but rubble and blood stains. He took one last look at the shattered remains of his life, and then jumped over the edge. His body crashed into the blue depths below, killing him upon impact. If anyone had been around that day, they would have seen a corpse floating across the water, but the whole world was silent.

It was silent because in truth, nobody cared for him any longer. He had no need or desire to live and so he ended it. He knew that this way he would never see his friends again, but the thought of never being able to think about it again made it worthwhile.

That afternoon a young boy erased himself from the world. No attempt was made at finding his corpse, or procuring his belongings. There was no funeral service and not even a burial for this adolescent whom had suffered so much. His room was simply emptied and his computer completely wiped, save for the one movie file he had encrypted into its hard drive.

A few days later, a new student arrived at the academy and got the deceased's room. When they logged onto the computer for the first time they found a strange video file. Figuring that it had been missed, they tried to delete it in everyway they knew how, but they were no match for his programming prowess. Defeated and curious the new student opened the file.

The girl's reaction was to be expected--that is if you knew the whole story. She had thrown the computer out of her window, letting it crash on the ground. Then she too let herself fall, her mental-self broken from watching something so sad and unnerving. That night a funeral was held in her honor and she was buried in front of the school with an enormous headstone.

Still, no one reacted to the boy's disappearance, and it went completely unnoticed for the rest of time. Some say that before her computer had been thrown away they saw a black ghost in the shape of a boy come out of it, but most agree that it was just a hallucination. The deceased were forgotten and pain on both sides of the life equation was silenced for a while.

That boy's name was Jeremy Bellpois, and this is the story of a team of guardians. It is the story of pain, love, sorrow, betrayal, friendship, death, and even birth. This is how the story ends. Now you shall witness the beginning.


	3. chapter 1

**chapter 1: Medicine**

Yumi:

Yumi Ishiyama woke up to the accustomed blaring of her alarm clock. Each day it was the same: she would wake up, get dressed, take her medicine, brush her teeth, and then wait for Ulrich to walk her to school. Yumi still wasn't sure what made him start coming by her house in the mornings now, as he had never done that before.

Today, however, things went a little differently.

She was out of medicine and so was her father, and Ulrich had neglected to visit. Despite her mother's chidings, the Ishiyama's both left the house and went to their respective locations. When Yumi got to school she felt extremely frustrated and wanted to pummel the nearest thing she saw, but she held back through her first class.

Speaking of classes, her History class had undergone a dramatic change. Everyone wanted to know why William was gone and where it was that he had gone. Because Jeremy was working on a way to get him back, Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich told everyone that he was simply on vacation. But of course they didn't stop there. People are much too nosy for that. They prod and prod until they get the answer that they want to hear. Since the team wasn't willing to produce such information, it took a painstakingly long time for such inquiries to end.

This did not help Yumi's situation at all, and only made her feel worse. By the end of her second class, she had developed a steady headache. She knew that there was no way that Dorothy could help, so to try and calm her nerves she ate her lunch outside that day.

She noticed Ulrich come up and sit next to her at the base of the tree. "So... about this morning... I sorta... well you see... Odd kept me up all night and," Ulrich said, a flustered look on his face. Yumi's head was throbbing and trying to concentrate on what he was saying only made it hurt worse.

"Shut up," she said on impulse.

"Have I been doing something wrong! What was it! I'm sorry if you're sad about William or something... What can I do?" was Ulrich's mixed answer.

"You can just shut up!" Yumi said, clearly getting annoyed. At that Ulrich walked away.

The bell rang dismissing lunch and Yumi just sat there, her food untouched as she tried to clear her mind. She realized now that she should have listened to her mom's advice because Yumi wasn't sure she could contain it any longer. As she sat contemplating this, the worst thing possible at that moment arrived, Sissi. Sissi Delmas walked up to her and asked Yumi something in a snobbish tone about the relationship Yumi had with Ulrich. Yumi got up and tried to flee from the situation, her mental capacity finally being reached. But Sissi was stubborn and grabbed Yumi's arm, pulling her back. Yumi had already gone so fast; however, that Sissi instead caused her to trip and face plant into the ground.

Sissi stood for a second in surprise at the event, and then proceeded to walk away laughing. Yumi slowly got back on her feet, her body reeling slightly. Her breathing quickened and her muscles became more defined. Any normal adrenaline rush would stop here, but this rush was not normal. Her muscles continued to define themselves so that one could see all of the grooves into a joint and every vein throughout her body stood out at its full depth. In a mad rage Yumi dashed forward and tried to punch Sissi in the face. Nikolas, playing the role of a knight, took the blow and was sent ten feet through the air. Herb and Sissi stopped and stared in horror at Yumi. The school grew still as the other kids came to see what had made such a loud snapping noise. What they found: Yumi breathing heavily with bloody fists clenched, staring angrily at Sissi. Looking behind the shocked fan club members they saw the last of Sissi's group, blood gushing out in torrents from his head.

It was at this precise moment that Yumi regained her senses. She panicked and ran home, trying to dismiss the scene from her mind. A stretcher arrived for Nikolas, and there was talk of permanent brain damage and expulsion.

When Yumi got home, she forced a window up and ran up to her room, but not before locking the entrance behind her. She laid on her bed the rest of the day, in tears over what she had done. Her parents left to restock their medicine cabinets, having to travel all the way to a private manufacturer in Britain. Yumi was left with only her little brother, Hiroki. Normally her foolish raven-haired sibling would aggravate her to no end, but seeing her this way scared him into behaving. Hiroki decided to sleep over at their neighbors during the three days they were left home alone. Although he still continued his education as usual, Yumi had been adamant in refusing to return.

The next day around noon, Ulrich showed up at her door. She was embarrassed and scared of the result, so she shut it, hoping he would leave. Ulrich however, stood their and explained how nervous he was for Yumi and how he hoped to relieve her melancholy. She showed him to her room and was overcome with a mix of grief, joy, and anger. Needless to say, she failed to disprove Ulrich's superstitions.

Ulrich:

Ulrich had a test in the morning and he was desperately trying to study. Odd wasn't helping. In fact Odd was dancing with Kiwi around their room blaring his music so loud that it enveloped the dog's barking. Ulrich's earplug trick didn't work either, so that his only option was to wait for Odd to finish his tomfoolery. Slumber land did not grace Ulrich's eyes until one o' clock and he was so tired that he slept right through his alarm and had to make a mad dash to his first class. After a seemingly interminable lecture in Physics, he found himself groggy once more. Ulrich fell asleep again and this process was repeated for his second class that day.

Ulrich ate his lunch with gusto, as he had not eaten breakfast that morning and needed to be awake for his test next class. Once he saw a disgruntled Yumi in the lunch line, he recalled what he had forgotten in his foolishness. Ulrich took the sight of her frustration badly and perceived her anger resulted from his fault. Yearning for forgiveness, he followed her to the base of the tree she sat at whenever she was depressed.

They sat there in silence for a while, until Ulrich couldn't take it anymore and had to say something. "So...about this morning...I sorta...well you see...Odd kept me up all night and...," Ulrich said as he tried to force out his explanation.

"Shut up," came the reply.

Ulrich had never known Yumi to be so rude to someone unless she was deeply offended. That being so, he took her response to the extreme of his overactive imagination.

"Have I been doing something wrong! What was it! I'm sorry if you're sad about William or something... What can I do?" a panicked and bewildered Ulrich stammered.

"You can just shut up!" Yumi said, clearly getting annoyed. Ulrich walked back to his room in a slump and laid down on his bed to stare at the ceiling. He was no longer tired. His mind was now full of potential reasons for her irritability and their results: a break in their healing relationship.

It was then that he heard that horrible, stomach wrenching sound. He looked out of his window and saw what he thought must have been Hell personified. His beloved Yumi was fuming above a bloody Nikolas, steaming blood on Yumi's fist to prove her guilt. Ulrich's first impulse was to follow her, but he decided that he would ask her tomorrow morning. He did not sleep well that night either, his mind being plagued by three fears now instead of the original two. He was so absorbed, that he neglected to hear his best friend's arrival or Odd's apology for the previous night.

When Ulrich heard that Yumi was absent, he went to the nurse, claiming stomach pain. Only he never went to the nurse, he ran straight to Yumi's. Ulrich was so nervous, that he neglected to knock on the door and just rammed into it repeatedly until it opened up.

There stood Yumi, her appearance quite unkempt with one red eye peaking out through the gap in the door. Still shaken up, she slammed the door in his face, making Ulrich explain himself. In a few hours, Ulrich left the Ishiyama residence, more confused than when he had woken up. All Yumi had done was cry on his shoulder and occasionally hit the floor. Fortunately, Yumi's parents arrived to sort out the matter that night.


	4. chapter 2

**chapter 2: The Kiss**

Odd Della Robbia stood over his best friend, watching Ulrich worry his life away. Stern was lying on his bed, his gaze fixed on his ceiling, but his brain consumed by the thought of his ex-girlfriend being a murderer. Nothing could faze Ulrich for more than a few seconds.

Although Odd didn't like to talk to others about his situation with finding legal guardians, Odd indirectly displayed it whenever he saw one of his friends truly hurt. At sixteen the thought of being a parent was too overwhelming for his parents, so they abandoned their one-year-old son in an orphanage.

This orphanage was having trouble financially--a mild depression was slowly sweeping northeast France--but was the only option near the would-be Robbias. It so happened that this pair of intimate lovebirds was mugged and killed at this establishment. They were stripped of their ID's and credit cards, as well as their keys. An attempt at thievery was made, but as they still lived with their families, it was unsuccessful. The orphanage finally gave way three months later, releasing the children into their relatives' care.

Odd's relatives didn't need nor want him. The Dellas and Robbias were unwilling to provide him shelter because it was his birth that had killed their children. The response was firm and irrefutably adamant; Odd would not have caretakers from generations on either side of his family. He was shipped from aunt to uncle to newly married couple, but these were all mere sojourns. Half of them hung themselves or committed some other wrongful act at the thought of bearing the blatantly irresponsible murderer of their dear cousins, uncles, and great aunts.

It would seem that Odd Della Robbia had reached an unbreakable impasse. But it is at this point that his life met its first success. At the age of five he had witnessed countless deeds of horror and anger by all of his relatives, ironically a complete stranger offered the boy some help. This wandering vagrant, as he appeared to be, had picked the child up from the sidewalk where he sat playing and ran away with him to a junkyard. Yes, this man was indeed homeless, but he was not always. In his youth he had made a fine spectacle of a father and his business life had gone splendidly. This man, Gareth Pois, hit rock bottom when he was drafted. Suddenly, his boring lowly office seemed to him a grand palace when compared to the horrors of war.

Pois did not return for three years, at which point his family had abandoned him and the beginning of a depression crippled his employment, a complete layoff from duty following soon afterwards. Odd and Pois were not unlike, both abandoned by all aspects of their life. And as Pois had always yearned for the gift of being a father again, he had taken this brash chance at reinstating his title.

At first the boy was completely unresponsive and lost in melancholy, until he saw Gareth's friend, Kiwi. This scarred dog was all that remained of Gareth's past life, and even so it was let go. Odd's first present lit up his face in such a way that it made the world seem free of all strife and this made the old man happy. Gareth sat on a broken chair for a few seconds, musing over his life gone by and his new one beginning. Satisfied, he produced a tennis ball from his slightly torn and weathered pockets, saying, "Wanna play catch?"

Odd stood in complete bewilderment. He had been completely and utterly dormant his first five years of life and did not understand anything that was going on, but he didn't care. Odd nodded and his new life began as well. On his sixth birthday, Odd was taken away from his foster father due to lack of licensed agreement. Pois was tried and convicted of robbery and never saw his son again.

Being old enough, Odd was sent to his first boarding school. He quickly made some friends and was content, even though his new guardian was a poor one. Odd never heard from him, until a revoke of his status later that same year.

The rest of his life had followed suit. He would impress a clique and obtain their friendship in order to escape the oppressive void of loneliness, only to be dragged away from them as he left to meet his new parents. Always he carried Kiwi with him; they were never seen apart.

Odd didn't always go to boarding schools and so still had to suffer home strife and abuse from time to time. Any well-abled guardian was unavailable it seemed, or could not keep him long. This being the case, Odd quickly learned to attach himself to his friends and to fend for himself. His friends were his new family, and no matter how cruddy they were, they were always better than the real one waiting for him at home.

His latest guardian was the worst yet. He had been with every relation to the Dellas and the Robbias imaginable, including willing adopters and a few true-to-their-name thieves. She was labeled as his aunt, but in truth one would have to go back extremely far to find a common ancestor between the two. After three days with her, Odd ran away from the abusive woman, only to be dragged back and beaten some more. For a time he was sent to a public school until he managed to make his case known one year later and was sent to his current boarding school, Kadic Academy.

It had been arranged so that Odd would never need to return home during the school periods. Furious, his caretaker would hear none of it. Her mental illness controlling her, she locked Odd in a closet and left the house after committing several acts of arson around the neighborhood including her own abode. Luckily Odd survived the fire but the closet door had been welded shut, bolted to the wall, and triple locked.

Odd was sent to Kadic immediately after his rescue three days later. With no current guardian and no more willing providers, Odd was left at Kadic completely alone. He had ceased waiting long ago and began his unique cycle, quickly attaching himself to the nearest student he could find, Ulrich Stern. Slowly Odd had formed his family and would do anything for them, anything.

With thoughts of abandonment foremost in his mind, Odd wasted no time in getting to the Ishiyama house. He banged on the door until it opened, there standing Yumi's mother. Odd rushed inside without waiting for an invitation and inquired the whereabouts of Yumi.

"I'm sorry Odd. This isn't a good time right now, why don't you let Yumi finish sleeping and come back tomorrow, she's had a bad day."

"Sorry mam, but it can't wait," Odd said as he bounded up the stairs. He opened the door to Yumi's room and ran inside, waking Yumi. Bewildered, she tried to get her bearings. Her scan was interrupted, however, as a hand was put over her eyes and two warm lips were put over her mouth. Normally, she would have pushed the person away, but Yumi was so sad that she didn't care. Instead, she allowed his tongue's access and he hers. It was the most passionate kiss and the only kiss Odd would ever give in his entire life.

When he finished, he jumped through her window and ran back to his room, their kiss meaning nothing to Odd. Yumi sat up, now more confused then ever. After she realized where she was and what had just happened, she sighed and went back to sleep, thoughts of whom she presumed to be Ulrich filling her mind.

Seeing nothing wrong and failing to see the previous spectacle, Yumi's mother just shut the window and the door and let Yumi sleep.

The next day, Yumi went back to school, but only to drag them back to her now vacant house. She had some explaining to do. That is, after she finished all of the homework Hiroki had bestowed her.


	5. chapter 3

**chapter 3: Surrounded by Death**

Aelita, Jeremy, Odd, and Ulrich had all gathered at Yumi's. She hadn't said what it was about, but they already knew it had something to do with the events of three days ago.

Finally Jeremy broke the silence, "So what the hell happened before?"

"Well um this is kinda hard to say," Yumi stammered in front of extremely nervous friends. "But here goes. My father and I have defective adrenal glands. They never stop producing adrenaline into our bloodstream, and during a normal adrenaline rush it only gets worse."

Silence again. "Adrenaline," Odd began. "Isn't that like a gun or something? Jeremy you were talking about that yesterday."

"Odd, how could you not know? We've been studying hormones for the past month in Mrs. Hertz's class!"

"You know I don't actually listen in school, it's when I get my beauty sleep," Odd joked.

"Still a month! Whatever, fine. Adrenaline is a hormone that is triggered by fear, anger, extreme excitement, and pain, which usually is accompanied with anger. Now adrenaline is created in the Adrenal Glands, which are triggered by the Thyroid gland when your body feels it needs the effects. A small amount of adrenaline is always in your blood stream, as it helps keep up our awareness and gives us something to act on during the starting phase of an adrenaline rush. An adrenaline rush occurs when mass quantities of adrenaline are created..."

"Adrenaline makes you temporarily angry and strong, Odd." Aelita said, summing up Jeremy's point to the confused teen.

"Oh I see now! So their problem is they have too much adrenaline? Stupid problem if you ask me!" Odd answered.

"What's getting me is how come you have it? Does your whole family?" Ulrich asked still blatantly nervous about the whole conversation.

"Well no one really knows, but we think it's hereditary. It only occurs in your first child though, so it doesn't make much sense. We think it must be though, otherwise Samurai who had quote, unquote strength of the gods would have never been recorded in Japanese history books," Yumi finished.

"So how do you stop it then? This is the first we've heard of your condition," Aelita asked.

"My father and I take a pill that drops the adrenaline count to zero for a whole day, by thinning your blood. Its highly addictive though so we don't know how long it'll be effective, as an overdose just reinstates the effect and you don't build immunity to it. It hasn't done anything to my father yet though, and he's been taking it since he was eighteen."

"Your father had it to? What tipped him off? And why didn't you tell anyone?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, he found out after he killed a guy during a basketball game. Besides lawsuits, we also try to avoid people who'd want to duplicate the effects. Since radiation experiments killed so many people back when nukes were invented, the thought's virtually extinct. But it's always a good idea to be cautious."

"Well your secret's safe with us! I don't know about you guys but I'm very relieved about this!" Aelita exclaimed happily.

"School's pretty much over with now. You wanna stick around for a bit?" Yumi asked.

"Yeah sure, what the heck, that'd be great, okay," came a whole mix of replies seemingly jumbled together.

A few hours later Yumi's friends were getting ready to leave. Yumi turned to Ulrich and hugged him. "Thanks for yesterday," she told him. "I would have felt horrible forever if you hadn't come."

"Whadya mean? I didn't go to your house yesterday!" Ulrich exclaimed. They both then looked at the only other acceptable option. "Odd! You're going to need a doctor when I'm through with you, you bastard!" Ulrich screamed as he chased Odd around the room.

Aelita and Jeremy looked quizzically at the scene before them, along with an extremely embarrassed Yumi.

"What? I was only trying to help! I just wanted to make my friends happy, is all!" Odd shouted in defense.

"By kissing Yumi! How could you?" Ulrich exclaimed, clearly entering his hotheaded mode. He made a charge for Odd and tackled him onto the floor.

Odd cried out for help as Ulrich started punching him in the face. The others were trying desperately to rip them apart from each other, but to no avail. Finally as a last chance, Odd kneed Ulrich into the stomach and kicked him away. Odd got up and pulled a switchblade from out of his pocket. "Calm down, Ulrich" he pleaded. "I swear it was only between friends it meant nothing to me!"

Yumi was half relieved and half sad as she escorted Ulrich out the door. "Yeah well, I don't wanna see you ever again, you hear me?" Ulrich screamed. "In fact I'll sleep outside tonight! You and your bothersome mutt can have the room to your worthless selves!"

Hearing this deeply affected Odd and tears could be seen forming in his eyes. Odd tackled Ulrich out the door and onto the street pavement, then got up and walked home. "Looks like you will be sleeping outside tonight, you bastard!"

As Odd got into his bed and Ulrich into his--it was raining outside--the tension could be felt within the room. No apology was made and while this suited the hothead, it just furthered the lost one's feeling of being surrounded by death itself: the death of those he met or their feelings for him.


	6. Chapter 4

**chapter 4: The Hopper Experience**

It was getting late when Aelita left Jeremy's room that night. Already two hours past the ten o'clock curfew, Jeremy had had difficulty smuggling Aelita into her dorm room under the ever-watchful eyes of Jim. As Jeremy left to return to his room, he was caught by said official and received a suspension.

However, all of this went completely unnoticed by Aelita. Lost in thought, she was already musing over how much of her life had been lost in the ten years she was gone. Even now, Aelita never felt like she was completely part of the group. With Jeremy almost as out of the loop as she was, some of the pressure was relieved, but still it existed. For the past three nights, the digitally restored human wondered about her past life and if she'd ever be able to completely adjust.

One of the most painful things about retrieving her memory--she noticed soon after the deed had been done--was that it hadn't been complete. Only the thoughts that were pondered over most frequently or were most prominent at the time had survived. All in all it had behaved like a normal brain, locking off its body from the thoughts it didn't need; only in this case, those thoughts were actually gone from her mind.

People say that computer data lasts forever, but in reality every use whittles that data away, making the user constantly have to save it to keep it whole. Of course, her memories had never received a refresh and so all that was not important had escaped her. Of the memories that were gone, only reminders had been left, leaving Aelita to fill in the blanks. Of these fleeting dream-like images, one was the most recurrent. It was the image of a red-haired boy standing next to her, his hair spiked and his smile broad. Try as she might, the genius's girlfriend was unable to solve the puzzle, to breach the enigma. The boy who seemed so important in her dreams was forgotten so easily.

Aelita wondered exactly what place he had in her world. He was substantially older than she, so potentially he could have been her uncle, her cousin, or perhaps even a perverted boyfriend who targeted young girls. One thing was for sure, she remembered being an only child and so he could not have been her brother.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her: what if it was a dream? If it was, then how many of her memories were simply dreams and nothing more, things she had fabricated in her spare time and mused over when she was bored. The thought saddened her, as she closed her eyes to try and get some sleep. Little came that night, with so much on her mind.

Within the severely limited sleep she was visited by a strange dream. It was the boy again, holding out his hand to someone, as if saying good-bye. Was he saying goodbye to her, she wondered; or was she a bystander in that scene of her past-life. When a tear escaped her dream eye, she knew that it was indeed performed for her. Upon her awakening, Aelita wondered more fervently than ever as to whom that person was or if he was even real.

It was the weekend, and so the gang would have time to spend with each other that day. With all the past events, many students were wary of Yumi, Nicholas was nowhere to be seen, and Odd refused to speak to Ulrich, despite constant nagging. With Aelita in the realm of wonder again, the seconds of reality seemed to tick away at an agonizingly slow pace. At last Jeremy spoke up, "Whatcha thinkin about, eh Aelita?"

Aelita looked up, startled. When she realized what his question was she replied, "Its nothing."

A few more moments passed in silence. Suddenly Aelita asked, "Jeremy, can I ask you something?"

With a quizzical face he replied, "Yeah...What?"

"Well I've been having these dreams lately..."she began to trail off, losing confidence in what she was saying. The others began to look over with increasing interest and disgust at the same time.

Jeremy began to blush. "And what kind of dreams are these? Should I be happy about it?"

"I dunno. Its just that...well I've seen this boy in my dreams lately, and... he seems to know me, and... I can remember crying when he left, so I almost think that he might be my... old boyfriend"

"What?" Jeremy shouted. "You're dreaming about seeing your old boyfriend? My gosh, do I make you that lonely?" As he said the last part, his eyes began to water. "Cuz I can improve, just tell me what I'm doing wrong!"

"No Jeremy! It's nothing like that! It was just an honest statement! I was just wondering who he was that's all! You're fine!"

"I'm fine? That's all? I guess you really do like that old guy more than me..." Jeremy could clearly be seen panicking.

"Please! You're overreacting! I never meant that! In fact you're... you're... you're marvelous!"

"If it took you that long, then..." Jeremy started. But he was interrupted by a hug from Aelita.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have brought it up."

After a few moments they stopped. "I guess I did get a bit carried away."

"Get a room!" Odd mocked. Everyone broke out into laughter. But this laughter was short-lived as a storm began to settle. The students rushed into the school upon seeing the sky darken. Wind howling, rain pounding, meter-thick lightning, and a super-scan flashing an alert from a laptop.

"I knew it!" Ulrich exclaimed. "He's been too quiet for too long!"

"Yeah, I know!" Yumi agreed. "That means that this attack will be a big one!"

Strangely enough, the attack and the storm dissipated as quickly as they had come. The confused group looked at each other, with the same thought in their minds. The former guardians broke into a sprint for the abandoned factory.

Because they used the shortcut through the sewers, travel time was short. Everything looked fine, but they decided to check inside just to be sure.

At first they weren't able to find anything. The factory seemed to be the same as they had left it a month ago--Europeans have different school schedules. Finally they reunited in the scanner room, all other rooms showing no sign of interference. As if it was waiting for them, the middle scanner held off opening until the whole group had assembled once more. Red hair could be seen in the fleeting mist.


	7. Chapter 5

WARNING: SEX ALERT! If you do not like it, then merely skip from the first set of hyphens, down to the second set. Please note that I will not be mean to you and nothing crucial to the story will happen during the scene.

**Chapter 5: The Stranger's Coming**

After the mist had cleared, they all stood gazing in awe at a boy who they had never seen before. The sound of lasers and the smell of singed metal interrupted their musings, and the gang quickly got into the elevator. Up above, fourteen mega tanks were wreaking havoc upon the factory's ground floor.

Thinking quickly, Ulrich cut in front of one and lured it into a wall, which it easily broke through. The waves became its demise. The rest of the gang struggled to avoid their enemy's lasers while mimicking what Ulrich had just done. Soon three more mega tanks were taken care of in the same manner. However a problem was now presented: the other mega tanks had learned to avoid their tactics and to attack with their lasers before hitting the wall.

The gang could be seen frantically running around and trying to get the mega tanks to destroy each other. Lasers swept across the factory's support beams, causing some of them to fall and impale the mega tanks.

After what seemed like eternity, there were only two mega tanks left. Exhausted, all but Jeremy Bellpois had dropped onto the floor, lying in the wake of a now massively populated junkyard. The only thing that fueled the usually frail boy was his desire to protect the one he loved. Since he couldn't see Aelita, he thought that they had taken her away for him. Jeremy ran into one of the spherical monstrosities, and rammed against it with all its might. Only by the power of sheer adrenaline was Jeremy able to push an object three times his size into the water surrounding the factory.

Now he too was exhausted, and still one mega tank remained. Worse yet, the spiders had begun swarming onto the battlefield. In his peripheral vision, Jeremy could see one of the many-staked henchmen. Using all of his remaining energy and willpower, he removed the metal support beam and hurled it at the last remaining mega tank. The brute simply rolled right through the imposing obstacle, the structure bouncing off of its shiny metal armor as if it were a toy. However, this was wet Jeremy wanted. The beam flew into the ceiling, dislodging a fairly sized chunk of what remained. The ceiling proved too great an opponent for the opposing hindrances, as many spiders were destroyed. Then the beam itself came down, its velocity at a speed many times greater than Jeremy could have ever hoped to launch it. The beam cleaved a spider neatly in two, the metal singing, burning, and then melting from an interrupted refraction of light. The beam melted down through its core and fell onto three more mechanical beast parodies, defeating them effortlessly. Too tired to move on, Jeremy fell to the ground with a heavy thud, still half the army of spiders slowly encircling him. Charging through the debris blindly, the mega tank could not see where it was going and flattened many spiders. Luckily for Jeremy right before it did the same to him, it hit a small hole in the floor, causing it to ricochet into the air and fall into the vast sea below.

By this time, his friends had gained enough energy back to fend off the remaining offenders. When the battle was finally over, they all fell where they were, a much-needed sleep overpowering each of them.

Meanwhile, Aelita was safe and sound in the scanner room. Staring at the white boy's red, spiky hair, and his grey eyes. He was physically active, but not overly muscular as some older teenage boys and young men tried to become. He wore an orange jacket and gray shorts, two white tennis shoes adorning his feet. This was the man from her dream.

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The mysterious stranger got up and rushed in to hug Aelita, rubbing his head all over her face and covering her body with his mouth. This teenager had so much lust in him that it was as if he hadn't touched any other person for fifteen years. Aelita, surprisingly, didn't mind it. In fact she went with it, for she too had never truly been satisfied with the touch of another human entity since she had been virtualized a year ago.

Aelita began mimicking his motions, earning soft groans from a slightly deep voice. They began to lick each other's faces, her tongue finding his now blue eyes twice. Caught up in the fit of pure lust, she ripped of his pants and grabbed the blatantly erect member behind them. Not pausing to remove her own pants, she stuffed it as far as it would go into her clit, the fabric of her pants pressing against her inner walls and causing an unbearable pleasure.

While the restriction was joyful to Aelita, it was painful to the enigmatic newcomer, whose swollen manhood was now bent at a ninety-degree angle. Aelita could feel the effect of her blocking off blood and cum movement in his cock and loved it.

That was when she did something so horribly grotesque but strangely erotic: she took him out of her, her pants still tucked away, and stuffed a paperclip straight into the opening of his second head. She then bent down the two ends, sealing off any sort of backflow. Blood and semen instantly began to well up inside it, now once again shoved into Aelita. In the midst of enjoying the sensation of the greatest moment of her life so far, she remembered the effect the paperclip would have on her partner. Not wanting to miss a minute of the pleasure, however, she slid her hands down to her crotch and used one hand to keep her nether lips open, while she worked out the paperclip with two fingers from the other. A powerful ejaculation resulted, soaking both layers of her clothing and causing some of the white liquid to spray onto her face. Finally satisfied, she shoved the man away, and licked the bitter substance from her face.

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The two now glistening humans also fell asleep and didn't awaken until the advent of evening. After a quick change of clothing and a shower, they hurried off to deposit each person into their dorm room or house. Once this task was finished, Aelita and the boy stood outside her quarters. Signaling for him to leave, Aelita opened her door and ran inside. Strangely, the boy followed her into her dorm room and sat down on the floor.

Aelita, now perturbed with curiosity, flattery, and a little fear, just stared at the teenager. "Why are you following me?"

"Because I don't have anywhere to go."

"You couldn't sleep in the factory or something?"

"Why would I do that, when your floor would be much more comfortable. Besides, I have no right asking anyone else for housing."

"And you have the right to ask me?"

"You really don't remember who I am, do you?"

"Not really, should I? You're in my memories sometimes, more like a dream. But that's it. Are you my boyfriend or something?"

"Heck no! You're being pretty nasty, you perv! First, half-raping me and then calling me your lover!"

"You were the one who sexually assaulted me! Within two minutes of seeing me!"

"I have been away from any type of contact for so long, human, animal, or object. I couldn't control myself, I'm sorry for what I did. However, enjoyable that was. By the way what year is it?"

"It's September eighth, of the year two-thousand and six. Why?"

"Wow! It's been that long already! Sheesh, I should be thirty-one by now! Already fifteen years of my life lost!"

"You're making no sense at all! How about you start by telling me who the hell you even are and how you know who I am?" Aelita shouted in frustration.

"Wow that really stings! Stop joking; you couldn't have forgotten me that easily! I still remember you after all this time!"

"I'm not joking! I seriously have no idea as to who you are! All of the memories that weren't prominent at the time of my departure to Lyoko were deleted from my memory. Speaking of which, I'm curious as to why I never saw you there, although you claim to have been there three years longer than I have! And as to how you were able to dematerialize yourself after it was destroyed completely!"

"My name is Xerv Hopper. I can't believe you could have forgotten me of all people, little sis!"

Every occupant of the school's dorm rooms was then forcefully woken up by the loudest scream their ears had ever heard! Luckily, Aelita was able to feign a nightmare, while Tarn hid in her closet. The whole school had difficulty sleeping that night, a common premonition about the important event to come.


	8. Chapter 6

**chapter 6: Sight**

The morning was illuminated by the sun's radiance, further enhanced by the cloudless sky. The unadulterated spectacle was such that--at times--one found it hard not to smile; the energy from the sun's rays enlightening both spirits and minds. Xerv Hopper had spent the whole night reflecting, but still it was as if he had had the best slumber of his entire life.

When the morning eventually came and the students had arisen Aelita witnessed a strange spectacle. Xerv was walking down the stairs with increasing difficulty as if he was not able to see them. After Aelita had succeeded in helping him to gain access to the grounds, she reluctantly left for her first period class that day. Whenever Aelita chanced a look outside she would see her brother sitting atop a tree, literally at its peak, gazing at the sun.

He rejoined the others for lunch, repeating his earlier act and making Odd tell him what each entree was. He seemed to have no trouble going to the cafeteria table though, and he always knew who talked to him. Speaking of talking to him, his status as the "new boy" made him a target for billions of questions. He would only answer that he was Aelita's older brother, not even hinting at another piece of information. However, Xerv did answer the gang's questions in Morse code.

From this they learned all of what Aelita knew, plus that he wasn't biologically related to her in the first place.

Then Odd asked Xerv the pivoting question, "So dude are you like blind or what? At first you can see and then you can't, what's up with you man?"

Xerv spoke in the most menacing voice any pair of ears in the room had ever heard before. His reply was not only cynical but it was as if he had pent up hate for just the occasion. "That is none of your concern!" A silence brought forth from the vehement statement slowly began to engulf the whole establishment. The birds had even stopped chirping, as if they had taken the hint as well. As Xerv stood up and tried to leave, the other students made their previously trivial lunches their main concern.

Suddenly a voice came from the back of the room, it was Jim's. "Hey you! Yeah you, the new kid! I think I've seen you somewhere before! No, it couldn't be! Is it you Xerv? I thought they had disposed of you a long time ago. I may not have been one of the staff in charge, but being a bodyguard I still know you were dangerous. Kids, you must vacate the area at once, get away from the new guy! Miss Delmas go now and get your father! Tell him his brother's project was recycled! Quickly!"

The panic spread like a plague throughout the cafeteria, the shocked students preparing to flee from the threat. Xerv turned and met his gaze and a blue insignia lit up on his forehead. His fists clenched as blue blood began to drip onto the floor and then disappear as if it had never existed. "That voice... It is you! Jimmy! How nice of you to remember me! I still remember how much you liked that poker of yours! How funny it is to see the wannabe tough guy now in charge of security at a boarding school! Seems you've gotten quite out of shape as well! Regardless, I can't have you spreading such rumors around. I was getting all psyched up about a new life too, but I'm going to have to start all over... It's really too bad! Tell me, Jim ol' buddy, do you remember what exactly I could do?"

The Lyoko Guardians could see the insignia as clear as day, but they were shocked to believe their greatest enemy to be so closely related to them. Then the air began crackling, the friction increasing and Xerv's hand was enveloped in bright blue bolts of electricity. Xerv stuck his arm straight out, perpendicular to his body and then bent it inward so that the back of his hand crossed his face. He began his stampede at Jim, jumping over the tables in a mad dash.

Jim caught the onslaught of brute strength and led his arm away, afterwards kicking him into the wall. Xerv's hand cracked against the concrete, the electricity fizzling out as he fell. Xerv got back up, dragging his hand through the wall as it was caught in the wall itself. As soon as created a hole big enough to fit his hand through, Xerv yanked it out and reformed the ball of electricity. He lashed at Jim with a backhand, which took his attack head-on this time. As the electricity burned its way through Jim's hand, Jim broke Xerv's arm, picked him up, and then threw his body up into the ceiling.

The ceiling cracked, blood spilled onto the floor from above. A spine was shattered the lights dimmed. A shirt made its way down, revealing many blue scars leaking a substance that instantly dissolved whenever it hit another solid or liquid substance. The nature of XANA's name was learnt, it had been created from the scars of cobalt blue. Red blood also erupted from veins, splattering onto the face of a gym teacher. A cut had been driven down at a twenty-degree angle from his chest to his pelvis, another from his collarbone to his gallbladder. Further wounds led up from his liver across the shoulder and from his shoulder back down to his spleen. One from the wrist to the revealed burn mark on his thigh, a small "N" seen through the rip in the fabric. The lights faded and the power in the cafeteria shorted out. His descent began.

As Xerv fell down he brought with him an electric pike and slashed off Jim's right arm, an engraved "A" now visible on Xerv's back. X A N A... XANA.

The sibling kicked Jim in the stomach, knocking the wind out of Jim, and then slammed his face down into the ground. The tile cracked under the force of the blow; its new occupant was given no time to recover. The pike was transformed into a swirling orb of pure voltage, a spiral gradually becoming evident. From the rotating energy source a picture was forming, a picture that Jim and Sissi were thrust into; one Xerv himself entered as well. Gathering up their courage, the Lyoko gang dove into the portal, Sissi's loyal fans close behind. The remaining students, too thoroughly frightened and stunned to do anything, stood watching as the gateway closed.

On the other side was a land, no a world, that most of its new inhabitants had already discovered. The three escapees were nowhere to be seen in the desert. In their stead was something, which--despite its simplicity-- they had never expected to see even in such an erratic world as this: an altar.


	9. Chapter 7

**chapter 7: Still Hanging On**

"Where the hell are we?" Herb asked.

"Yeah, you better tell us, right now!" Nikolas demanded.

"And what if we don't?" Odd challenged.

"That's enough!" Jeremy said. "We're in Lyoko, a virtual universe comprised completely of data, in other words a computer game. However, failure in this game is the same as death in reality."

"What the fuck! You had better be joking, Jeremy!" Herb replied. "But given the circumstances, I'd say you weren't. So do we have any abilities or the like?"

"Hey you guys! Do you notice something weird beside this altar?" Ulrich asked.

"Like what?" Yumi asked in return.

"Like there are no towers! And the digital sea is gone!" Odd yelled in surprise and awe.

"You're right!" Aelita said. "Xerv must have done this! That reminds me...Where is Xerv?" Her question was met with a common shrug.

"Excuse me, geek club! You were telling us about our perks here!" Herb reminded Jeremy.

In the next two hours much was shared and discovered. Herb and Nikolas were quick to understand their new environment and the consequences pertaining to it. They were both archers: Herb had a plain white, futuristic sci-fi suit and proud, patriotic, white wings jutting from his shoulder blades; while Nikolas' skin had an armadillo-like composition, allowing him to maneuver stealthily and nimbly while standing erect. Herb's arrows were produced by refracting light throughout his suit. Nikolas carried a wooden bow and a leather-skin pouch full of a virulent substance, which could disintegrate data strands.

Kiwi was behaving to the group's liking, and seemed like he could understand what was said to him. Kiwi metamorphosed into a wolf with radiant, silver fur and the sharpest set of teeth and claws that any of them had ever seen. The dog's eyes gleamed a calm blue and even when riled to wit's end his overall appearance remained constant. Kiwi was extremely fast but not nearly big enough to mount.

Jeremy's appearance provoked the greatest gawking. He was extremely short, barely three-feet tall, and he had on a blue shirt that dwarfed the rest of his body. His imagination seemed an invaluable asset to the team; Jeremy could code within the Lyoko universe and was able to project giant hands of data. Using these hands, he could stand taller than seven-feet and could traverse the steepest of sand dunes twice as fast as even Ulrich. Unfortunately, Jeremy's abilities needed to recharge once used for the total length of twenty minutes and an immediate detriment was seen. Through coding, he was able to summon the group's vehicles-- he himself, obtained the overbike, while Aelita was given her own overboard. Nikolas' sadly had no immediate vehicle, so Jeremy created one for him: the overdisk. It was a small disk that hovered like an overboard, but the user's feet were chemically attracted to the surface, destroying any chance of unintentionally parting from the device.

After all was said and done, the group began to explore. They searched the entire sector but didn't discover anything new, excluding the lack of a sea and towers.

"Damn, it's so bright out here! But I don't see a sun anywhere!" Nikolas complained when the guardians had regrouped.

"Yeah! No sign of any anomalies anywhere; we can't access Carthage anymore either," Yumi expounded. "Wait did you say the sun? Hey! Where'd the sun go! Then that means that Carthage is gone! It's strange that the wires still run through the same spot in the sky though; it's as if something is still there, but neither accessible nor visible.

"This place is crazy!" Odd accused the sky. "There's nothing around here but a stupid altar! No towers, no lakes, no sun! Only wires and a stupid altar that has nothing on it!"

Sighing, Jeremy got up to sit on the blank altar. As soon as he did so, the sky dimmed, and cracks could be seen in the sky. The humbling vastness that was the sky was blank though; no stars had been programmed. It was as if they were trapped inside an endless void, to suffer the torture of infinite boredom and total institutionalism.

"This is new!" Aelita exclaimed. "I feel cold! I can feel! Wait a minute…." Aelita bit down on her lip forcefully and blood began to trickle down her chin. "We can bleed too! This isn't good! This means we can't take any damage at all while we're here, or we'll suffer the same agony in the real world!" The moment that haunting realization was put into retrospect, the world's pulse slowed. The steady beat of the wires began to expand and contract more and more slowly, until their sound was completely inaudible. The group's vehicles were deleted. The wires filled with a black substance and then ruptured, one by one shattering into millions of fragments. These fragments began dissolving the world, eating through the ground as an acid eats through metal. With the collapse of the wires, the ground began to give way. Deep ruts formed, attempting to separate the group, all the while Lyoko steadily grew colder and darker.

"We have to stay together! Aelita! Ulrich! Get your asses over here now!" Jeremy was screaming at the top of his lungs. Ulrich picked up Aelita and super-sprinted into a jump in an attempt to clear the gap. Carbon dioxide and water were now condensing in the air.

"Hold on Aelita! We've almost made it!" Ulrich's hand clasped the ledge and then the whole land mass gave way and hurtled downward. The Lyoko Guardians were struggling to retain their grip on the rapidly accelerating ground beneath them, which they could now barely see. Kiwi was biting down firmly into Odd's left leg in a desperate struggle to stay his companion.

Then the world became pitch black and all sight was lost. Visibility was now a useless mechanism, and one could still feel the darkness becoming even denser. Their skin was slowly numbing and a few members had already obtained windburns. The ground didn't stop accelerating.

The conditions kept heightening past all imagination and past any means of scientific measure or even description. Yet, their grips still remained firm; they had been through worse and would not give up without a fight. They were determined to see the descent through to the ends of time if necessary. Their skin was past the stretching point and began chipping off of their bodies. The wind howled through their wounds creating a slicing and agonizing pain sent throughout the entirety of their bodies. They wanted to scream, but their current and still increasing speed made it unable even to breath. The group was getting visibly light headed, but still they persisted.

If they had been able to see, the desert sector above them would have escaped their plane of sight. The temperature dropped into the negative hundreds as any exposed skin was all but cleaved straight off. Some bones were even stripped clean of their ligaments as well. The darkness had become dense enough to create a feeling of seclusion in every member, including the still attached Odd and Kiwi. Muscles numb and depression mounting; the notion of forfeiting was still met with adamant refusals. There would be no way to acquiesce their spirits.

Ulrich fell asleep despite the incessant damage being done to his body, oxygen deprivation becoming imminent in the rest of them as well. Luckily for him, Aelita was able to cling onto him with one arm, an arm that felt like it would give way any second. Yumi was the next to succumb to slumber, and in a daring feat of courage Herb threw himself into her direction, sliding his hand along the ground and pulling up with all of his might. He saved Yumi, but his hold was reduced to a loose pack of dirt, making him have to fling his way again in order to gain a better grip.

Nikolas nodded off, but Odd was able to catch him on an opening wound in his right leg. Large chunks of meat were flying straight upward as their elevator descended even further, showing no signs of stopping.

The now coatless Kiwi drifted off into his own private realm of dreams, but luckily his teeth were so embedded within Odd that Kiwi remained within his owner. Aelita and Herb left the current plane as well, Jeremy using his powers to sweep both groups into the only other person who remained awake. A few more minutes passed and Jeremy had nodded off twice, but refused to go to sleep. He did not want any of them to die. If Odd and he could hold on, they could keep up their efforts for about two more hours before there were any casualties.

The landmass itself was now degrading, its edges slowly pushing inward. The lack of the perimeter caught up to Jeremy, who now hung onto a precipice. Jeremy fell asleep just as the last of his hold on the ground gave way to the sky, and fell into the tree of corpse-like beings behind him. The tree was still accelerating and the temperature was now below the two-hundred-mark. It was so cold that their flesh now died off before it left their bodies. The landmass was now only small enough Odd's right arm to grip. Odd's hand broke free of the last grain. The club appeared to fly upwards in the air due to the rapid change of acceleration, but in truth they were still falling.

A few seconds later, they hit the bottom. They hit it hard! Odd slept amidst a crumpled mess of mutilated bodies, as the cold overtook him. The ground still suffering repercussions, cracked and the group fell through. The impact was only just now beginning to affect them, as body bags were literally smashed to smithereens.


	10. Chapter 8, part 1

**chapter 8: Static Immersion: part 1: Pandemonium**

The room was blank, eerily so. The contrast between the sky and the ground made one's head reel. Nobody dared to look up more than twice. Staring at the infinite vastness of complete color absorption became disturbing. It leaked through your skin, weaving its way into the recesses of your soul. Hallucinations were common there; one could easily become lost in the mind-numbing room. Actually it was wrong to call it a room--or a world for that matter--but for lack of a better word, such will be its name. That room was a great place, which made one feel excessively happy. The feeling was creepy and unnerving, as if such a level of bliss was unnatural. I had wanted to stay there forever; Aelita and everyone and everything else didn't matter to me. As long as that image of pure white surrounded me, my mind and body were at peace.

-----

The group woke up in a blank, white area. It seemed that after falling through the crack in the ceiling that this room had healed them. Indeed, touching the darkness recreated every previous wound. After three meaningless hours had ticked away, a wave of static swept through the room. Odd and Jeremy were pulled out of their reveries; the others weren't so lucky.

The peace and happiness was all an illusion; the room was filled with static. Nothing except for a mindless drone of static, which created a white light when gazed upon for too long. Its inhabitants were affected by no other methods. Still, the static alone was enough to keep Odd's and Jeremy's senses of reality fluctuating.

One second they were surrounded by static, the next white void. One world completely vacant; the other filled to the brim with broken strands of computer code. White to nothing. Concern to bliss. Purity to destruction. Values, norms, morals, standards, mores, and taboos to lack of socialization whatsoever. The vector of white was disrupted. Static remained unchanged.

Xerv's face was projected on an invisible panel. With the next change he was gone.

"Do my...you? Are...satisfied? Are you...location? ...Zero Sector...No escape! Three other sectors...access. Sky...prot...sea. You...demise! Meet my new...Tamer!"

A crack formed within the realm of purity; a crack that disappeared a moment later, only to reappear twice as big. There was a deafening sound as actual light rushed into the area. A creature burst forth from the crack, clad head to toe in armor. A faded, red XANA symbol was printed on his helmet, which had no visor. The grayish-green armor was skin-tight; the monster's form mimicked that of a human's. It had in its hands two chains, wrapped securely around its wrists and forearms. The monster stood there as a squadron of Krabs surged forth from the gaping hole. Strangely enough, debris was nonexistent.

The original monster, a Tamer, was acting as the leader of the ten defense programs. It stood surveying the group for a few seconds, then the symbol on its head began to radiate orange. The Tamer signaled the small force to attack. The whole world fizzled out.

Static once again began its monotonous crackling. Odd and Jeremy, deeply confused, took a few steps forward to where the crack was once before. They became lost in the static once again; they were standing next to the crack! Pain instantly shot throughout their whole bodies, causing them to jump backwards, straight into the Tamer! The monster was stunned, so Odd took the opportunity to fire three laser arrows in offense. The arrows bounced off of the steel plates, as the Tamer regained its composure. Their enemy lashed its chains in their direction as the planes switched again.

Convinced of their safety, they relaxed their guard. Three seconds later, another switch. Chains were on the floor beneath them; the chains came up and cut straight through skin. Blood began to drop onto the floor. Red blood. The darkest and most violent red imaginable. Its sight burned both guardians' eyes, and they winced away in sheer agony. Their offender took the window and launched his fist into Jeremy's face. Jeremy produced a ray of energy in retaliation, but the consequence was skipped. Odd and Jeremy began to run away from their current spot, hurt and bewildered.

White again--the Tamer was struggling to get off the floor and their friends had dealt with the Krab infestation. A chain grappled with Odd's foot, tripping him and dragging him towards his enemy. The chain left the ground and Odd was thrown through the air. Odd landed on his shoulder, and rolled into a slump on his back. Jeremy tackled the Tamer into the ground before it could resume its attack on Odd. Swap, head pounding again.

"What the Hell is going on!" Odd cried out, finally speaking the words that had plagued his mind for so long.

"I have no idea."

"This sucks! At this rate we'll wind up under our tombstones within minutes! I've already dislocated my shoulder!" Odd's last word was spoken as the next switch took place. With Nikolas' last punch, the Tamer was deleted.

"What were you guys doing?" Ulrich started yelling at them. "You've been walking around and talking this whole time!"

"I do wonder how you did that trick though," Herb mused. "When you'd just stand there or start running, stuff just passed straight through you!"

"We don't know, we..." Jeremy began, but stopped because it was no longer necessary to continue his sentence.

"This stinks!"

"...are you guys even listening to us?" Yumi asked, clearly agitated.

"No! You guys keep disappearing!" Odd blurted out.

"Odd, I think we're the ones doing the disappearing. Have any of you seen static either?"

"You mean like from a TV?" Nikolas asked. "No, this place is completely white!"

"We keep disappearing from wherever we are now, and going into this place filled with static! Then reappear in this room!" Odd explained.

"I think that first wave of static triggered it!" Jeremy hunched.

"Wave of static?" Ulrich asked, confused. "There hasn't..."

"...nothing either," Aelita finished.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Odd exclaimed, annoyed. "Let's just move on, and hope it stops!"

"Hope what stops?" asked Yumi. "You've been standing here the whole time!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Jeremy yelled. "We left again! You can't see it, but we did! Once it happens, everything around us is replaced by static! Let's listen to Odd because I'm tired of trying to explain such a simple concept to you idiots! I'm confused enough as it is!"

The rest of the group silenced, and they climbed through the second hole in the room.


	11. Chapter 8, part 2

**Hidden: Chapter 8: Static Immersion: Part 2: Negative Zero**

They emerged in another corridor filled with white. This time the objective was clearly depicted in the form of a door. A door that didn't stay in one spot, but moved constantly. It was like staring at a picture of a hallway and then having that picture tilt and turn every which way in front of your eyes before you can blink. With each movement, no matter how slight, the room would turn off and then reload, letting each of them greet the abyss again, until it too became a welcome guest. They discovered that the room had no real floor or ceiling and that its dimensions were infinite, yet a sentinel value still existed for the loop. That terminal factor was the energetic door at the end of the passageway.

The group ran hopelessly towards the door, a mere square of mock hope in this world of pure nothingness. It was ornately framed with white wood; however, no actual door was put in place, despite the hinges. It was the most vexing thing they had encountered thus far. The whole world blinked out into a grey paradox of static as the room turned black once more, reloading itself. The static was also different here; it could be plainly seen—at least to Jeremy and Odd—in the white corridor as well. It appeared just as sporadically, yet on a much more minute scale, bringing only a few lines with it. There was no doubt that the door was the only way out.

Jeremy and Odd reawakened twenty feet above the others and fell to their place of consensus. "This is hopeless!" complained Ulrich. "There's just no way to get past this obstacle! It doesn't even run a set path!"

"There has to be a way, though! Why would a door exist here if it didn't matter at all?" Yumi answered quite frankly. "I do have one idea though. Even though there is no true set path for the object to follow, perhaps if we could build enough speed that wouldn't matter. Maybe all we need to do is traverse the gap between us. If we got close enough, we might be able to hold it in place."

"Well we have no other plans! Let's give it a try," Herb said reluctantly, already knowing that this wouldn't turn out well.

They all grasped each other's hands with Odd and Ulrich being on the whip's ends. They began to run around in a circle at top speed, going faster and faster until their hands no longer proved adequate support. Odd was shot like a bullet at the door's conceived location. He could see that it was actually getting bigger instead of moving further away, filling Odd with hope. Closer and closer, the big door was now in his peripheral vision. Odd now realized just how colossal it was, easily triple his own height and twenty times his own width. On the door's current path he would hit it dead center..."Yes, I'm almost there, just a little closer. Come on you big stupid door!"

The door was now almost directly in front of Odd, if it had had a door, he would've crashed right into it. All the sudden the door's velocity changed, it shot up, reaching mach speeds. In surprise Odd grasped where the door's lower edge would be located. As soon as he did so, his hand was forced straight back, ending in a limp position on his wrist. Simultaneously, a shockwave hurtled Odd across the room as a blast of static riddled through his body. Jeremy left their plain, Odd leaving as soon as Jeremy returned. The static had destroyed all of his nerve signals and then re-established them.

"I knew it was hopeless!" sighed Ulrich and Herb.

"No not entirely; now our disadvantage has been annulled and replaced posthumously with an advantage!" Jeremy cried out in excitement. "Now we leave at separate times, and can help each other accordingly!"

"I still believe that there's something to this world of static," replied Aelita. "I mean it only makes sense that it would have something to do with all of this, right? Whoa! What is that?"

The room had begun to quake, contradicting its own nonexistence. The group was forced to the floor as the rumbling increased around them and the room's static began appearing with wild abandon in regards to time periods in between its views. They felt a great pressure pushing them into the seeming ground.

Then it was let up, as quickly as the disaster had come it had dissipated. This time the otherworldly static reared its head for Jeremy, and Jeremy saw something different...a path had appeared. This white path led straight up to the volatile door and was indeed attached to the object. The appearance of this stunned Jeremy, but also explained why the room needed to reload.

"I've got the answer to our predicament!" Jeremy screamed as soon as he returned. Then Odd blinked out and resurfaced as well.

"There is a path that connects to the door!" Odd shouted.

"So that explains the reloading," replied Aelita. The door must stay connected to the path. When it breaks away; it needs to reconnect to the path."

"But we can't see the path!" answered an exasperated Nikolas. "We can't run across what we can't see!"

"I guess we'll just have to pull you then," Odd stated. "I mean we don't leave you guys completely, so when the static appears we'll just walk you along the path and to the door."

This they did at a snail's pace as they soon discovered that they couldn't interact with the physical side of things at all once they left it. They had to settle for going a few steps every time they blinked out, since the path bent with every movement of the door and they didn't want to stray off of it.

"This is taking forever! Can't we speed it up?" Herb complained.

"Be patient!" said Yumi. Odd's character flickered and he saw something he never could have expected. Not only was there a path, but there was a Tamer guarding the door. It had been the Tamer that had forced him away from the door in the first place.

"Guys watch out!" But it was all in vain. The invisible Tamer thrust its chain around Nikolas and yanked his feet out from under him. To the others it appeared as a sight gag, only Jeremy and Odd knew that something was wrong. When Jeremy flicked out he ran and socked the beast in the face with a fist of energy. The Tamer's head flung backwards and then returned in a powerful head-but, cracking Jeremy's skull. Jeremy reclaimed his equilibrium, put one hand on the monster's abdomen, and pushed with all his might. The Tamer stumbled backwards and then was tripped unexpectedly and punched across the face again.

The Tamer began to fall off the path as Jeremy regained his composure in Lyoko. However, Nikolas was still caught in the Tamer's chains and fell off the path with him. Thinking quickly--yes Nikolas can think--he took out an arrow, dipped it in his poison flask and threw it into the beast's body. The Tamer was stunned instantly, but something was wrong.

It had been twenty seconds already and they were still falling. Realizing this, Nikolas thrust himself forward and rolled around the Tamer building up speed. He then allowed himself to ricochet off his enemy and catapult upward, allowing more poison in his flask to leak out and eat away at the chain. As a result they were both pulled back up level to the path, Nikolas rising a few feet higher. Herb's friend came out of the spin with a downward kick so powerful that the program's torso cracked and disintegrated. He grabbed onto the path and hoisted himself back up. After a few minutes of frantic hilarity everyone quieted down enough to hear a subtle splash as the defender disappeared out of sight.

As they began to traverse the gateway, it occurred to Nikolas that he was one of three people that saw the monster and the path. He also saw static whizzing around the room, but he noticed that he couldn't flicker into a separate world like the others did.

When they had emerged they were surprised to see that they had come out of the very same crack that they entered from. But this time, the room was filled with seven corridors: one for each of them, minus Kiwi whom was expected to follow Odd.

"Well there's no way of knowing which way to go, so we'll have to take them all," Yumi voiced the unspoken thought that went through all of their minds.

It went unheard, but just before the group dissipated Nikolas spoke. "I can see..."


	12. Chapter 8, part 3

**Chapter 8: Static Immersion: part 3: Isolation**

That world...full of corridors...never leading anywhere but that one room...always that same room. Perhaps the quintessence of the sector; perhaps the sector in its entirety. Maybe it was its own sentinel, or was it merely an illusion. The last seems the most feasible. I never got tired; never hungry; always complacent about everything. There were no true feelings or emotions, not till the room changed and unveiled its insidious guise, lifting the shroud of paradise forever... or was it?

--------------------

Ulrich was running down the hallway, or what seemed to be one. The only indications were the invisible boundaries around him. This place was starting to test his patience. But as hard as he tried, Ulrich could never focus on such thoughts. They would leave him as soon as they made their presence known within the confines of his mind. He didn't want to be so calm, but some sort of clairvoyant force held him of its own will. "I wonder how the others are doing," he said to nobody in particular. "Man what time is it! I can't discern anything in here!"

Jeremy sat down and put his head in his hands, then for a reason unbeknownst to him, stood back up and resumed his stroll. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was getting him nowhere, that there was no end to this infinitesimal space. His mind began to play like a broken record despite the sector's normal effects...

"Stupid static!" Odd shouted, enraged. He had been blinking in and out at increasingly shorter intervals, or so his mind feigned. "What time is it, Kiwi?" Kiwi merely responded with three snippy barks and a growl. "Wow, night already, huh? I hate this place; it won't let me enjoy my fourth favorite part of the day!" Odd braced himself for another pang of surrealism, but no interference came. Instead, upon opening his eyes, the once translucent walls became covered with static that shot throughout the finite space.

Ulrich wanted to shake off the feeling of boredom even if it was only temporary. This being the case he had been super-sprinting for about four miles when he crashed into a barrier. "What the? Don't tell me it's a dead end...Perhaps my sword can cut through this wall," Ulrich expounded.

He drew his sword and sliced at the wall with all his might, futilely glancing off without any adulteration whatsoever. He was so close to the wall though that after it ricocheted, Stern's shoulder over-extended. He began flailing his sword around in rage, commanding his arm to heal. Just then he heard a high-pitched scream..."Yumi!"

The static covering walls began filtering out into abstractly colored pixels. A boy crying on a stoop, a small tennis ball, a match, and a noose. It was too much; Odd bent his head down and ran at full-speed, praying that the images go away. A women locking a closet, a man yelling across a dinner table, a broken rafter in an attic. "Make it stop!" A building burning, burning, BURNING, the flames distorting, soaring higher and higher and challenging the sky with awesome temerity and brashness. The flames began recoiling, twisting around themselves and shooting towards the ground. Drip...

A woman emerged from the flames with a butcher knife, announcing her anger at his behavior. The images grew bigger and more numerous, completely covering Della Robbia's person and suffocating his mind. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!!" Odd fired volley after volley of laser arrows at the colors until he was out of ammo. They reacted by growing even more gruesome, twisting into such a gnarled form that there was no mistaking it's misplacement in reality, and yet somehow that only made it seem more real...

"I wonder how Aelita's doing?" Jeremy mused, still walking leisurely. The walls began to fill with static. He saw his parents in England. They were hovering over twenty pictures of his uncle. stab... He saw his old private teacher, a real snob whom frequented attendance with his uncle. Stab... His aunt, flaunting her money around and wasting it needlessly and foolishly, the papers burning upon the corpse. STAB... Jeremy saw everyone in the world take a step away from the freakish brainiac, returning to torment afresh after an alliance was forged... with HIS UNCLE. STAB!!!!!!!

"It wasn't my fault!" The knife ran its course. "I didn't do it!" The blood soaked the bed sheets. "I can explain!" Stray drips hit the floor with a deathly pang. "I just couldn't take it any more!" The face grew pallid and black, insects crawling out of his ears. "He wouldn't stop it!" The bugs began ripping new holes in his flesh, burrowing through them and creating a vast network. "I was all alone, and he drove everyone away!" The flesh was rendered from bone, making an acrid sucking noise. "I was ALL ALONE!" The bone marrow melted away, and the bones began to crumble into dust. "ALL ALONE!! ALL ALONE!! ALL ALONE!!"

Bellpauix fell to the floor, sobbing hot tears and feeling the whole world slip out from under his grasp for the second time. "He deserved it..."

Ulrich returned to the room where the numerous corridors converged. Realizing that the others might be dead ends too, he tore two pieces from his cloak and threw them in front of the hallway he was leaving and another in front of Yumi's. Then he ran. He sprinted as fast as he could, scared beyond even his own comprehension. His feet seemed like they were separate of his body, indeed his whole body felt disconnected from his mind. It was as if he wasn't controlling his own movements anymore. Then the fervent ex-boyfriend stopped dead in his tracks. A Tamer was guarding the expanse of hallway lying beyond. "I have to take care of this quickly! Triplicate!"

From his body stemmed two clones, both draining substantial energy away from Ulrich. He had forgotten that he would feel everything here. He remembered his cause and sneered menacingly at the sentry.

The clone to his right vanished instantly in a super-sprint, while the remaining two Ulrichs threw their swords as if they were tomahawks at their common enemy. The swords whizzed past the monster, surprising it. That one moment was its downfall. An aerial kick collided with the program's head, knocking it back. Ulrich's first clone did a leg sweep and then uppercutted the Tamer a few inches into the air. The original Ulrich ran behind it, elbowed it in the neck, knocking it into an upright position; and then slid back around the humanoid, canceling the spin in a powerful kick. The second clone had caught the two swords and was hurtling straight for the beast. As the monster hit the rotating blades, it was chopped cleanly in to sections, which disintegrated upon hitting the floor.

Satisfied with his work, Ulrich ran towards Yumi's now audible voice.

The cadaver was gone. The photographs lying on the bed began to coil as the police left the building--the money spent and the casket empty. His former school became brash. Ostracized. The world banished him, turning the very ground so that he faced both the sun and the moon. Alienated. The heavenly bodies leered at him from above; trenchant words filling the silence. They advanced, increasing their hold while depreciating their victim. Until all at once his fortitude was broken, he bereft of any sort of will. Still he tried to drag himself away, out of some last dismal hope for freedom.

Even as his enemies beset him, he dragged himself on, looking for escape from such endemic holocaust. His mind kept up one last fragile barrier, confining and condensing his Me until brain left body. And body spilled out onto the cold brown dirt, surrounded by a million dank and dour prisons. Life is DEATH...

Kiwi tackled Odd and began dragging him down the hallway. At the end, six paws made contact with an unfamiliar impetus: soil. Kiwi licked the grimace until so much saliva was imbibed that drowning became a concern. The images themselves turned craven and left to bother others of less support.

Yumi was by this time visible, but it didn't make Ulrich any happier. She was fighting some sort of giant monstrosity: an orb with one giant crab claw (including the arm) and an elongated tail, which was comprised of smaller spheres. Retractable spikes could come out of the main orb's head, but its only mode of transportation seemed to be rolling. The Carnac—as it was later discovered to be called—lashed at Yumi with its giant crab claw.

Yumi jumped over the limb and did a barrel roll, while throwing a fan at the main sphere. This it blocked with its claw and then pushed the claw forward in an evisceration attempt. Yumi jumped backwards and was caught by Ulrich. Ulrich took the blow in the back, protecting Yumi. Then a second Ulrich jumped off of the dead Ulrich's back and threw his sword at the main orb. Discovering Ulrich's plan, Yumi threw her fan at the sword, making it ricochet upwards. The sword was only hit by another sword, redirecting it back on course with the main orb.

The Carnac with its hulking mass was too slow to react quickly enough and was hit by the weapon successfully. The second Ulrich jumped off of the claw coming towards him. Once his feet met terraferma, he super-sprinted forward, until the sword was once again being firmly wielded by its owner.

"Impact!" The Carnac began to disintegrate as Ulrich brandished his sword for all to see. However, a wave of static rushed through the beast, and it rejuvenated, completely un-phased. It crushed Ulrich in its powerful vice, his bones splintering and creating compound fractures throughout his body. The katana fell from the precipice, as the body was destroyed beyond recognition. Yumi focused on the arm and forced it upwards. Then she charged the particles around her arm until her skin began to conflagrate. Pungent smoke wafted skyward.

In one sonorous motion of pure animosity the arm was severed. Incensed, the crustacean whipped out its tail. A third Ulrich jumped over the appendage and parried the garrison, as Yumi began her own onslaught using her last two fans as powerful saw-like daggers on the entity. The Carnac began growing its spines, and to avoid injury Yumi was forced to jump away from it.

"Hah checkmate!" Ulrich stated as he cut off the end of the tail, beaming at his triumph. It was all in vain because the rest of the cartilage tripped him from behind. Yumi fell into him as the plates receded back into the sphere. It began to roll straight at them, its tail circling menacingly, daring them to get close. Movement was unnecessary; the tail was detached and launched straight at them. It morphed into a gigantic, gaping mouth with cogently sharp teeth. Yumi used her psycho kinesis to keep the aperture at bay, but another orifice was also being opened.

The monster's plates were used as a ramp into the air, and in a burst of static, it's crustacean ligaments were reintegrated. A giant claw thrust it's way through the grotesque stoma, which was surprisingly pliant and extremely raucous. It breached the shield with such rampant rancor that the sophomoric male was beside himself, wanting only to deride the awesome terror. He used the remaining clones' data to electrically charge his sword, until red lightning was wreathed around it. He stabbed straight through the beast's defenses, allowing Yumi to freely hack away at a now defenseless guardian.

The monster's sphere finally cracked and took the floor with it. The floor was giving away to the... water? There was a sea beneath them, pulling them into its depths. The current was abnormally strong, pulling them further back into the subterranean darkness. Yumi was able to slow herself down long enough to grab the edge, while Ulrich super-sprinted all he could to try and reach her. It was useless when submerged, he could foresee his own demise: an aquatic fate without inter. A familiar claw grabbed him.

The Carnac was back and stolid, prepared to destroy them. It was then that Ulrich figured out its secret. They could hack away all they wanted, but as long as its data stream went undamaged, it could regenerate as much as it wanted. He drove his sword along his arm, red staining the blue around him. He filtered all but one of his remaining life points into his sword so that it once more shone with red lightning. "Data Crusher!" In a streak of blood, the Carnac fell into the abyss, dead. But still the current threatened the same fate!

Yumi pulled Ulrich back to the sea's edge. They were both so exhausted that they could do naught but rest in the hallway of blissful lies.

And then Herb fell prey to the sea as Nikolas watched his best friend be whisked away by the horrid torrent. Aelita helped Nikolas out of the water. The two groups met at the convergence of the corridors and took one of the two paths left: Odd and Kiwi's.


	13. Chapter 8, part 4

**Chapter 8: Static Immersion: part 4: Pest**

Odd walked beside Kiwi as they traversed the dark dungeon. One of the four new sectors he realized. It was so quiet here, but it was a peaceful quiet, quite unlike the maddening silence from before.

Every time he passed a cell, he looked inside. But there was never anyone or anything in any of them. They just hung there, threatening to stab and skewer him with the spikes along the bottoms of the hanging prisons. There were also cells built into the walls, which were none too close to the narrow paths in the sector. This being the case, he couldn't really see in them and they assumed a position in his mind's hindsight.

He came to a crossroads. "It seems there is more than one path here," he said aloud. "Kiwi start that nose of yours! Which way?"

The wolf walked up to the intersection and sampled the air, walking this way and that to get a better whiff. When the capricious mutt looked up suddenly with immediate signs of great worry, Odd wasted no time in following the inherently wise slate fur; paw after paw dragging into the soft clay, hearts pounding, and eyes wide and focused in frantic apprehension. Twenty feet, twenty kilometers, twenty miles? Neither heeded the distance they paved...The knowledge that something was precariously askew was all that mattered: it was all that made any sense during those moments.

Reflecting on the moment afterwards, they intimated that the inseparable pair would've rather they never reached the end, never saw the image: Jeremy was slumped over on the ground, his head rested painfully under his right thigh, his right arm constrained by the insidious power of gravity to become bent backwards slightly above the elbow. At the compound fracture, the arm descended to its locale: wedged between his neck and his right calf. His left arm had plunged itself into it's possessors stomach, the wrist carving straight up and behind the rib cage. His legs were simultaneously being crushed under the weight of his back and dangling over his head. It was the equivalent of a freak-show one might perchance see at a destitute and inane carnival somewhere, except that this figure, this human being was actually performing this gut-wrenching position. There were many marks in the ground adjacent the motionless body, implicating that Jeremy had tried to return to an upright or at least comfortable position, but in a gruesome act of irony slowly pushed his body into an ever-increasing state of pain. The eyes were open, bloodshot...but yellow. Wet patches of soil signaled that the once-profuse saliva that had trickled it's way verily down the carcass' forehead had all but acclimated into a drought...the tongue had shriveled up, as had the ocular organs. The head and thighs had gradually swollen with blood, turning into a sickening bright red.

Odd could do naught but stare ahead, at the depressing visual. Eventually, he worked up the courage to drag the body into a lying position. Kiwi pushed the cadaver's torso upright, as Odd punched it's chest, until a faint, but noticeable beating had been inducted. Then the genus lupus and the young boy dragged the thorax into a vertical position as well...After Odd held the head for a few minutes, the color began to dissipate, relocate, and intermediate, evenly distributing throughout the body. The mouth closed, and then sputtered as it opened callously once more...the eyes blinked; the ears wagged. A deep, long moan had been released from the distressed child's throat. Odd looked at his friend in a mixture of fear, anger, and shame. The teenage boy, as if he had been reinstated into the world as an infant, had regressed mentally. Imparting motor skills was difficult, but eventually the strength and ability were discovered to be inherent physiological traits. Jeremy began to babble, his words stringed into endless incomprehensible phrases.

After some time had passed, Odd noticed that Jeremy was showing signs of a full recovery, which overjoyed the young savior. Jeremy had begun to walk erectly, and his eyes had lost the confused luster they once had. But the rescuer's suspicions were trounced, when those same eyes were defeated by listless haze. Then Jeremy began to utter the same phrase repeatedly, verbatim. "It wasn't my fault..."

They had arrived at the fork in the road Odd and Kiwi had passed earlier. There they discovered their other teammates, each with their stories to tell. Herb's loss and Jeremy's condition had shattered the vitality of the reunion, and replaced it with a foul stench of despair...Aelita took Jeremy in her arms, and the group took off again...through the cold, dank, subversive dungeon.

"Jeremy it's all right...it wasn't your fault. It never was...they're all jealous...they're lying. It wasn't your fault." And although Jeremy's dermis revealed no changes, one could tell that he had calmed down. After a while, Aelita was interrogated, and she would only say that it had happened before and that after sufficient rest, he would reawaken. They inquired no further, understanding that this was something personal, despite that that knowledge only increased their curiosity towards the situation.

That's when it happened...they had come to a wide-open clearing, where the floor was conjoined with the walls. A gaping tunnel at the other end of the end of the expanse was their exit; another innate sense of knowledge unknown: a hunch that everyone could trust in without doubts. A cell door was straining against the red organ-like walls of muddy soil. It burst open, and almost instantaneously they were surrounded. Hundreds upon hundreds...thousands upon thousands...millions upon millions! Death had been assured.

"Aelita take Jeremy back to the pathway! Ulrich, you've lost too many life points! Follow them and don't even think about fighting!" Yumi ordered.

"Oh man! We're going to die in here!!!" Odd panicked, his voice wavering across a million pitches per second.

"We'll make it," Nikolas spoke up suddenly, for one of the first times since the beginning of their journey. "We have to...for Herb." Nikolas cocked his bow, and waited for the enemy to make the first move.

"We all use long-ranged attacks! If we can maintain a fair distance between us, we should be able to hold them off for a while!" Yumi thought out loud.

"There's only one problem with your plan, Yumi!" Odd complained. "That may be a good idea, but I'm out of arrows, Nikolas' are almost depleted, and you only have one razor-fan left."

"We'll use a combination of hit-and-run, guerilla, and blitzkrieg tactics. Yumi can hit them with her fan, then Odd and Kiwi can strike them with their claws while they're stunned. I'll assist with my arrows, and if necessary use the rest of my poison. Once we're all out of ammo, Odd and I can travel across the bottom and strike at their outer flanks. Yumi, you and Kiwi can pierce through the heart of the platoon during the frustration we cause. We regroup at the path. Ready? GO!" The other three, looked at Nikolas, stunned into a speechless state. "GO!" He repeated, more demanding this time.

The strategy worked for a while...but then Odd got hurt, and they ran out of ammo more quickly than they thought. Although the guardians put up a valiant effort, the small squad was completely overwhelmed by their enemies' own use of the blitzkrieg strategy. They all sat at the pathway, looking onward at their doom, attempting to assuage their pain and nursing their numerous wounds.

"Yumi, take my place...act motherly. Ulrich you're my assist, but drop out at the earliest sign of damage. Odd, Nikolas, you'll need to cover me when Ulrich returns..." Volleys of energy scorched the air, and the sound of metal striking metal resounded for almost an entire three minutes. That's when Ulrich was knocked to his feet, and Odd ran to his attention, quickly fending off the pursuers. Nikolas covered them as best he could, by throwing poison from his flask at the invading eyes.

Aelita launched an energy sphere at one of the Tamers, then quickly turned around to block the chains of another with two more spheres. She knew she couldn't keep it up for long, and she also couldn't risk doing too much damage to this floor, for fear of never being able to reach the exit. She was assaulted from behind, and being caught off guard, swerved to face the attacker, administering her attention away from the original enemy. That was it...the Tamer wrapped his chains her neck and threw her into the battalion...In a desperate refuge, she began to sing, and raised the ground in front of her into a spike, expanding the spike in her direction until she was clear of the crowd and launched into the mouth of the clearing: an estuary of sorts for the team.

She scrambled over to Jeremy, knowing that he was their last hope of surviving. She had to wake him up, regardless of the remunerations. The static had already proven a great disadvantage to Odd, and it made it increasingly hard to hold on to Jeremy.

Once the young woman had reached her compatriot's side she began screaming obscenities in his ear, anything to make him angry. Realizing Aelita's intentions, Yumi bent her head down and began screaming at him as well. They had all but given up the struggle, when from within the extremities of her thoughts one in particular erupted into an fail-safe plan: "Jeremy they're going to make me go away," she whispered into his ear.

All at once the yellowed cornea's receded, and the dilated pupils rapidly transformed into telescopic dots, which would refuse to hang laxly. His mouth closed, and Jeremy got up from his hindering position on the floor. He looked straight ahead; gaze dead-set on something that wasn't there, that couldn't be there.

All at once Jeremy's mouth opened, and downright refused to stop opening. It continued to grow wider, as his jaws were moved out of place, disjointed. The gaping crevice was seemingly wider than the boy's person, let alone his head. And then he laughed, a high-pitched laugh belying a great anger welling up inside.

"I did it," he told himself. "I DID it," he reaffirmed. "And you my comrades way out yonder...you have the pleasure of seeing, no experiencing exactly how it happened. Be warned...I tend to paraphrase!" Then he resumed his hearty laugh, but this time something else was heard. A sonorous growl was relinquishing its ulterior motif, building into a booming roar of quintessential hatred. His hands clenched into fists, as his gaze intensified, shriveling up into a distortion of either of it's former identities. Blood began to drip from the boy's palm, began to saturate the ground beneath him, phalanges gushing out red liquid in copious amounts.

Soon it became evident that his stance wasn't all that had metamorphosed. His mind had revolutionized his yearnings, and his body had transfigured back into a human form. Then his hair rose up into a seeming column of fire, generating intense heat that burrowed it's way deep into the hearts and souls of those that looked at it. And indeed it did assume such an appearance, orange streaks alternating with blonde. Black and reddish-pink ribbons were forming onto his left arm: becoming endless curls but never looping, converging at points; but never leveling out. Wild dips and sweeps became pronounced, covering his whole arm in yet another symbol of fire, the ends mirroring the beginnings of the insignia, an almost tattoo-like appearance. But even the most adept artist could never have hoped to portray such an image: the untwined rivulets mimicking roots in tree graveyards.

The change was seamless: he was there, and then he was there. It was as if both had existed at some prior point, but the other had died off just now, leaving the current. The new Jeremy brazenly charged ahead into the waves of defense programs.

His hand instantly combusted, sending molten streaks of fire coursing through the tense air, seemingly red-hot with tension. The air around Jeremy ignited into flame, more or less like the wick of a candle. His arm recoiled and then literally shot out like a bullet in a pistol, grinding the Tamer's face into an incomprehensible mess. He took hold and forced his hand deeper down into the abomination's neck, grabbing hold of its collarbone. He hurled the carcass like a limb: a giant arm disguising a thermonuclear reactor! The feet collided with the proceeding Tamer, jamming the legs into the torso and wounding the combatant. Jeremy slammed the beast to the side, taking out another creature. His tattoo illuminated, summoning a chain of fire. Jeremy took advantage of his abilities to add a knife to the mix, _for old times sake_.

Nothing but holocaust…Sepulchral anxiety swirled into a tempest of passionate rage, a trigger bent on firing until it could fire no more. First connecting to a neck, yanking back the head, elbowing the back, thrusting through to the rib cage, and using the body as a "human" shield. A front flip and a latch onto the outthrust excuse for weapons of two Tamers; a mere spin and a mass shift into an overgrown sledgehammer of unrelenting judgement.

Final judgement. "What's wrong!? FIRE THE GUN YOU COWARD!!!"

He darted out of view, narrowly escaping the onslaught of arms, legs, and chains. The walls began to breathe, to _respirate_, violently contracting and expanding as if to swallow the entire area. More and more limbs grew from the walls, the cages shattering to let loose even more violent Tamers.

Rending limb from limb, an impossible dance of mayhem and destruction. Slit a throat, take a stab, carve your name, and let them have it!!!! "FIRE, FIRE, FIRE, FIRE!!!! BURN IN HELL!!!!!" Again and again, beating the bodies into the ground, into digital soup, primordial ooze just begging to disintegrate. His hair exploded into volcanic hues of light, and darkness began to surround the air around him, light refracting light…

Punch right, punch left, left roundhouse, right knee, grab the head, twist and RIP!!!! One to the head, one to the stomach, both to the neck, then STOMP!!! STOMP THE LIFE OUT OF THEM ONE BY ONE. MAKE THEM ALL FEEL PAIN!!!! MORE PAIN THEN THEY COULD EVER FEEL IN A MILLION LIFETIMES!!!!! Guttural screams and red tears decorated the battlefield—red rice fields. The warriors, gladiators of their time, would not stop, could not stop. This was their purpose: to die at the hands of a Satan incarnate, a demon spawn.

His fingers gripped even tighter into his palms; torrents of blood gushed from his fingertips as wail after wail, scream after scream followed his movements. Stuck in the head, grab and thrust violently, a body flailing in the dirt, slowly decapitated. Another eviscerated and then shot through again. The walls were getting their bodies back, by the tens of hundreds. There were only a handfuls left.

The blazon to his destruction decimated, Jeremy's tattoo created helixes around his arms. He punched one in the face, jumped onto its torso, and then furiously clawed through to its spine. He ripped out the spine and leapt off onto the next head, biting it off at the neck with his crevice-mouth. His eyes became an indescribable abyss of hatred as he took the spine and skewered his victims, one by one. The bone broke on the third, so he grappled the body with his legs and flung himself forward, releasing the body only to grab it again and thrust its skull into and through the ground.

He stumbled up and ran blindly up and over the next Tamer, only to jump off of him into a back flip. On the second half of the arc he released an eruption of flames into the earth, the clay charring to molten iron. The programs were simply gone where it hit them: an empty gap between whatever and whatever, flames scorching the rest. A giant arsonist's barbecue. A murderer's feast. Funereal fantasy. All but one was dead….

With an unrepeatable scream of utter agony, he completely annihilated the foe, killing him upon impact, burning him into nothingness afterwards. A giant void was replaced with smoke, the ground burned, the walls burned…All was consumed in fire.

The others were almost too afraid to cross the evolving chasm to achieve their original goal. The ground was beginning to crumble and still Jeremy was pounding and smashing the bits and pieces into smithereens. Then he looked up and saw it…the walls spewed their final amalgamation of data at the devil: a gargantuan, armored, quadruped with a penchant for murderous rampages. It had massive, originally, bone-white tusks smeared with blood and a long tail containing the heads of a million tamers. Its mouth was huge and the beast covered half of the remaining arena. The creature thrashed a leg out at the demon, but Jeremy punched into the leg and barbecued its foot. From there, the monster ejected its leg and thrust out a giant human appendage, its hand grasping Jeremy and throwing him upwards.

A sword came straight out of the palm of its hand and they exchanged blow after blow as Jeremy began his long descent back down. He managed to land in the creature's mouth and, going against all logic, ripped out the beast's tusks and thrust them back through its skull. He was convulsed out then swat down to the ground, a second arm coming out from the opposite leg. The beast's torso did a 180, and its tail's eyes opened, human eyes. The living fire torched the tail and rended it from the body, turning it around and thrusting it into the gaping hole. Like a fault line, the body began to quake. Swords were thrust from all angles. Jeremy caught and deflected them all for a full three minutes of relentless barrage. Finally, the beast died. The ground beneath him fell away. And it was all Jeremy could do to procure his position at the exit.

His friends waited, wondering what exactly would happen next. However, he did nothing…absolutely and purely nothing. He just stood, all the violence gone from his appearance. His expression was lifeless. The only things suggesting the previous events were his appearance and the innate wild sense his eyes held when you stopped to look into them. Who was this?


	14. ideas

Summer's almost here, so you'll probably here a lot more from me from now on.  
well...I think it goes without saying that there will be a lot more venues branching off from this account and its partner at fictionpress.  
I have a lot of ideas...and since I only heard from one person before...well I would like to know atleast what you think about my ideas.  
Or if you have better ones. This time I'm not going to scream your head off...or chop it off either. lol It's a suggestion, a loud one at that. In fact I'm sending you a bombardment of subliminal messages saying to comment right now!  
Aaah well hopefully I earned atleast a chuckle, anywho I'd really like to hear from you guys. It is summer and we'll have a lot more free time, sure some of us will work and shit, but without homework, it'll be a lot easier.  
That being said I really do want this to be more of a two-way system. In other words I'd like to hear from someone who doesn't speak. Seriously, I won't rip your head off and if you're embarassed about your thoughts or something (you shouldn't be, but I understand) just drop a pm one day and no one will ever know but me.  
It's not that hard.  
one more thing I wanted to say before I begin. FORUM, I'll be going insane with codeing languages this year, I want to be able to make a screen fold into itself and then squeeze out into raindrops, only to release toxic gas that makes your icons wilt!  
jkjk, seriously though I will be putting in an effort to get that place running, so expect that sometime this year :P 

-----------------------------------------------------  
rubric:  
name - location  
summary  
finalized?  
inspiration?

FIC idea list:

The Citadel - fictionpress  
A death god fights a demon and loses, consequently losing the last of his power. The death god must now redeem himself and regain his power if he is to defeat his new rival. Only thing is death gods can only fight you so many times.  
There will be a great deal of massacre within this story!  
yes  
bleach, God of War

Key Heartless: KH2 Revamp - fanfiction  
My version of Kingdom Hearts Two. The original title was going to be "Sided"  
yes  
kh2, prince of persia, jak and daxter, naruto

The Omega Colony - fictionpress  
One word: Scifi...sort of: no aliens. The human race is expanding, conquering planet after planet. Surely, there must be some consequence!  
no  
star ocean, George Orwell

We the People - fictionpress  
A totalitarian dictator takes over the Earth and begins systematically killing all those above the age of thirty.  
yes  
Childhood's End

We the Children - fictionpress  
Seqeul to We the People. Originally called "The People Last." Oh how fickle the world really is... and cruel as well.  
yes  
Lord of the Flies

Eureka Six: Cometh - fanfiction  
A prequel to Eureka Seven. It will detail the invasion of the Currallean.  
yes  
duh

Eureka Eight: Golden Skies of Paradise - fanfiction  
Sequel to Eureka Seven. Renton and Eureka's quest isn't over just yet.  
no  
subtract one from the number above

----------------------------------  
Oneshot idea list:

Just a Bloodstain on the Sidewalk - fanfiction  
Samurai Champloo: Mugen reflects.  
yes  
samurai champloo

Time Should End Now - fanfiction  
Samurai Champloo: A suicide bomber's story, set in the Magi Era.  
yes  
samurai champloo, 1984

FIGHT - fictionpress  
Boy dreams of being a hero. To bad reality isn't a dream. Original Title - "The Boy and the Terrorist"  
yes  
...

Just Sitting Here - fictionpress  
A regular person...just sitting there...same as always  
yes  
FLCL

Monitored - fictionpress  
I have that strange feeling like I'm being WATCHED.  
no  
Paranoia Agent

------------------------------------------------------------------  
there you go...that's all the stuff I'm pondering over right now.  
well if anything looks nice, say so.  
Or if you don't like someting, say so.  
once again, mere suggestion.  
This will be left up as the last chapter of Hidden as you guys don't look at things if I put them anywhere else!


	15. just a version update part listing

finally done with 8-4

For those of you who have forgotten, I'll repost the parts, here.

Chapter 8: Static Immersion  
Part 1: Pandemonium  
Part 2: Negative Zero  
Part 3: Isolation  
Part 4: Pest  
Part 5: Fossilized  
Part 6: Overdose  
Part 7: Up

there'll be one more gigantic fight scene before this chapter's over : on Part 6, Overdose.


End file.
